Life in Ottawa, again

An end and a beginning...

2008-06-26T21:17:00.003-04:00

We're changing our blog address. Update your links and favourites to direct you to the new Margenau Family Blog.

www.margenau.wordpress.com

When we first started blogging, blogger was really the best tool available. Since then, a lot has changed. I am constantly annoyed by blogger downtime, by the photo uploading, but the ridiculous little quirks of the site. Additionally, we are reaching the point where we need to integrate our two blogs together. It makes no sense to have two, especially with the new baby on the way. We can't continue to keep 'baby developments' separate from 'family developments', and the maintenance of both is getting exhausting. Wordpress is a new blogging tool that seems a bit more user-friendly and effective, so for now, thats where our blog lives. Come visit us there, as there will be no more updates here at Blogger....

International meeting organizer, check

2008-06-23T21:16:00.003-04:00

I could tell you why I had to organize a meeting for people from around the world. But I would have to kill you.

Thankfully, it is almost over. I have realized over the last few months that A. I really should learn French. B. I should really learn some Spanish as well and C. My limited Chinese, while a fun party trick, is not that useful when everyone is from central America or french speaking Africa.

All in all it has been a great learning experience and I am finally able to sit and enjoy the view of my room in Toronto. The meeting was very successful and for me to watch an international negotiation session take place was very very enlightening. Very cool to be there. I can only imagine how neat it must be to be at a really big meeting like the CBD (that's biodiversity to the rest of you) or Bali (that's climate change). We had almost 40 people speaking in 3 languages with translation. I took 24 pages of notes in 8 hours of meeting. That's typed not hand written.

I suppose that's about all I can say about it I suppose. Regardless, after a 12 hour day today, I got just about everyone taken care of, although I am sure something will need looking after in the morning.

Yep, I organized, the meeting, coordinated the travel for almost 40 people, ordered the food, arranged the hotel rooms and managed the budget. Check that one off.

The food was good, the room was good and I am going to sleep.

Goodnight.

All Decked Out!

2008-05-16T20:30:00.003-04:00

I had all these great titles for blogs over the last month.

Hey, wasn't it winter last week?

Followed by

Hey, wasn't it summer last week?

and..

.... a couple of other I have since forgotten.

Yeah, I know its been a month since I updated last. Linds keeps putting up the pics I wanted to post about.

Finally, though I managed to stop her from posting the latest pics. Once again, our development has turned in to Luke's favorite place in the entire world. The trucks are back and we are construction central!

As official community organizer, a title I came into by default, the interlock work we had done was based out of our front yard. Linds actually organized most of the quotes and picked the guy in the end but I would like to believe that it was spurred on by my efforts to get us a fence. The fence though, let me tell you, I can only hope goes as well as the rock.

So bright and early this past Monday a couple 'o big old trucks showed up in front of the house and offloaded a mini excavator. As if that wasn't enough to drive Luke to distraction, they proceeded to drive it into our front yard and start digging at the door! Talk about the happiest little man in the world!

The work went smoothly and being the good neighbours we managed to convince 4 other people to get work done as well. The contractor was a really nice guy and he did what he said, stayed on schedule, cleaned up and did good work. What more can you ask? Oh yeah, he didn't change the price after he gave the initial quote!

Now we have a nice new parking space in the front yard, which is a lot better than the pile of dead grass we had and we also have a great new lanai in the back. the table and grill are back on it and we have spent every evening out there.

Today I managed to lay the left over sod along the edge of the interlock and put all the extra topsoil in buckets. This meant I could, with the help of a neighbour, pull the tarp off the yard so the grass doesn't die.

Now, if only the stupid fence guy could get his act together...

The Duttonation Invasion!

2008-04-12T12:55:00.004-04:00

Question: How do you judge a good friendship?

Answer: When a friend who has never flown before gets on a plane just to come see you. Well, we really know they came to see Luke, but he still got on a plane.

That's right the DuttoNation invaded Canada for 5 days last week.

After a short but, as I understand it, enjoyable search at customs the Duttons finally made it into Canada. Seems someone forgot to tell them our address so the nice little man at customs made them go through secondary processing. Shane said no on had made him feel like the customs man had in a long time.

Luckily the weather was great the whole week they were here. It meant we go to do a lot of fun outdoor things that weren't possible even a week before. The snow pile started disappearing pretty quickly and the roads were clear so we took them out to see the hood.

It was a terribly busy week for me at work and for Linds as well so we had to leave Shane and Tiffy on their own for a while. We spent some time at the play area in the mall but otherwise just bummed around the house while they were here.

Seems that while we were thinking how nice and warm it was the poor old southern folk were freezing. To top it off Luke managed to come down with a rip-roaring good fever on Saturday night to go with his cold and runny nose.

The big highlight for Shane and I was the renewal of our longstanding sporting event mandates. I took Shane to go experience a real hockey game in Canada where everyone cheers and the place it packed! It was the last game of the season and the Sens, despite sucking for most of the back half of the season, managed to backdoor into the playoff despite losing. It was a decent game and we had some really entertaining people sitting next to us.

Saturday was the big day out for all of us. We took the Duttons to the Sugar Shack we went to with Heathery and did some more excessive eating. It was amazing to see what a difference 2 weeks makes to the frozen waste of the farm. The snow had melted and the sap was actually running from the maples! Very cool. The food was still spectacular and I again managed to eat too much.

We took it easy the rest of the day, with the exception of me shovelling some snow. I find it crazy that I spent a whole winter building up a 13 foot tall snowpile in the front yard and then spent a week shovelling it back onto the driveway to help it melt. As of today, the pile is almost totally gone but this is what it looked like when I started throwing it on the driveway.

Sam and Luke had a great time playing all week and seemed to get along really well. Except when Luke decided Sam made a good horse!

Sunday morning we said goodbye to the Duttons with talk of planning a trip down there next summer after baby Margenau #2 makes an appearance. Shane made it safely home thus completing his first round trip adventure in a plane! YAY!

Now we are just preparing for Grandma who will be here on Monday!

Eatster

2008-03-24T19:27:00.007-04:00

No, not Easter, Eatster. As in that is all we did this weekend!

Aunty Heather was here and so we had to take her out to a sugar shack for brunchfast. No one ate for the rest of the day after that episode. Ham, pancakes, bacon, beans, eggs, fresh maple syrup, hash browns. They gave us maple taffy for dessert too. Check Heathers blog for picks of that day.

Then there was actual Easter Sunday with a traditional Easter ham for dinner and we capped it all off with an Easter Monday brunch with Jo and Rich! Eatster indeed!

It was such a blessing having Heather here. Anytime there is another set of hands to pick up and legs to chase after Luke it makes our lives so much easier. Lately Luke and gone all mommy centric and won't do anything with me. I think it is a backlash from the 8 months I spent being SAHD. Fortunately, Heather is just as good as mom and Luke was happy to drag her, literally by the finger, all over the house. This was nice because Lind is still recovering from her mauling by Oli and resulting trips to the ER. To be fair it wasn't Oli's fault, but that is a story for another time.

So here are some pictures from the weekend along with commentary. Yes, I am off of the writing long blogs. I write all day at work and really am less interested in it than normal. My wrists are also very sore from breaking up the ice dam that is the bottom of our driveway.

Easter Monday brunch was served in bowls made by my dad, which elicited many comments! Including some new mugs we got in the mail! And what a feast it was!
"Mom, my mouth is SO full of chocolate and I know there is more in these eggs!"

A big Easter egg hidden in the neighbors snowbank. All winter! Yes, that is a VW.

"Oh, look another egg! Who put that on my high chair?"

"Are you serious? More eggs? You guys have to come over and see this!"

"I hope this is the last one. My arms are tired! But the real question is should I put it in the basket or not...?"

And finally, two more videos of the Easter egg hunt. No more complaining for a while grandparents!

Back when I was 30...

2008-03-11T21:15:00.006-04:00

...it snowed so much that we had a good chance to break the all time record! In fact it snowed 51cm this past weekend. It was a good one! I think we finally found out how much snow it takes for the city to not be able to keep up. The side roads are beyond belief, less than a single lane in places and even the main roads are terrible.
Well, it begs the question if there is that much snow what do you do with it? Some guy made a 2 storey snowbank in front of his house, but we decided on a much simpler idea. Dive in it! Sorry it is sideways. I will try to fix it later.

Then Linds had the great idea to dig down to the grass in the backyard and stick Luke in it. "He will love looking at the picture someday" she said. Someday wasn't Sunday. In fact he started screaming as soon as I put him in it. Probably because it was a good foot deeper than he was tall.

Well, some day he will appreciate it. When he gets done with the counselling.

The snow really was fantastic. At one point I got up in the middle of the night and realized I couldn't see across the street!

This is what the opening of the garage looked like.

Here is the mazda and night and then the next day.

The front door.

Me standing in the hole I dug for Luke.

In the end there was so much snow that I broke one of the shovels we have. It just cracked under the pressure.

Six more weeks of winter and the weather people tell us that we get 25% of our snow in March!

Blizzard of 2008

2008-03-08T14:01:00.004-05:00

No, I am not talking about the massive snowstorm we are in the middle of, although I will eventually.

I am talking about the much more personal blizzard.

It started like this...

Continued with this...

...and this...

and finished like this!! With a blizzard of hair dropped into the bathtub.

Isn't there some show about losing ten years in ten days? Well I did it in ten minutes! Geez I look like a kid!

Of course Luke wanted to get in on the action. He wasn't even freaked out by the new look dad.

So what prompted this? Amazingly it wasn't Linds and she is having trouble getting used to it. After all it has been almost four years since last I shaved! I had just been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks and wondering what I would look like without a beard and especially since losing all the weight. Well now I know! I don't plan to stay clean shaven for long. Just a few weeks. I hate the thought of having to shave every day too much to want to stay this way for long.

Hair raising stories aside it is snowing like mad today. We are supposed to get as much as 40cm (I'll believe it when I see it) by tomorrow morning. So far we have about 15 I would guess. Pretty exciting all in all. At this point there is so much snow most people are getting tired of it but there is a core group of us who are excited that this could be the snowiest winter of all time. We only need about 85cm to get there and we still have 6 weeks of winter left. If it is really good we will post some more pictures tomorrow.

The Simple Life

2008-03-03T20:39:00.002-05:00

I have endeavoured to become slightly more sophisticated in my life since meeting Linds, I have developed my Scotch palate learned to appreciate a good literary classic and can intelligently talk about hockey.

Truth be told though, I am but a simple man. Here I sit in Toronto, watching the Caps absolutely destroy the Bruins wearing a collared shirt and enjoying my first work related trip since I lived on a ship.

That being said, the highlight of my time here has definitely been the simpler things in my life. The view from my room looks out on Lake Ontario with a couple of tall ships locked in the ice. Out the front door is the CN Tower, the second tallest tower in the world. It is pretty cool, but way to expensive for my simple tastes. Most importantly the afternoon was capped by a brewery tour of Steam Whistle Brewery and then a leisurely 2 mile walk to the Mill St. Brew Pub for dinner.

Really what could be better, other than having Linds and Luke here mind you, than to spend the evening with some fantastic new friends? There was the excellent pilsner at Steam Whistle followed by the delectable porter, stout, IPA, lager and ale (it was a sampler set) at Mill St. They were well matched by the simple dinner of steak and mushroom pie and the Mill St. equivalent of Death by Chocolate. I closed out the night outdoors with a 2 mile walk home, through some of the seedier areas of the waterfront and past a lineup for largeish concert, in the rain.

Now I will sleep. Undoubtedly I will still wake up at 1am and 5am but I will still count that a good night sleep. I hope Linds and Luke also have a peaceful night.

8 years ago ...

2008-03-02T14:12:00.005-05:00

... Lindsay rather aggressively let it be known that she found me interesting. And, well, you all have heard the story before. Amazing that it has been that long. I would say it seems like just yesterday but that wouldn't be true. It seems fairly recent though, lets say it seemed like it happened a week ago next Saturday. That seems much more accurate.

And look we went from this -

To this-

And one a cookin'.

I still find myself thinking (shocking I know!) once a week how crazy it is where we have ended up. If you would have told me 8 years ago when I stepped off the Tole Mour on Feb 17 that 5 days later I would meet Lindsay and that 5 days and a few short years later I would be living in Ottawa and shoveling the 35th 10cm of snow this year I would have laughed! For those of you who are math challenged that is 11.48 feet so far this winter!

So what romantic thing are we doing today to celebrate? Why we hung the new cabinet doors we got yesterday! The work that Scotty did over Christmas is finally almost done, we just have to even the doors up a bit an put the knobs on. I think, and the boss agrees, that they look spectacular!

Ok, so it is only 2:30pm. What will we do next? Probably go for a walk since it is spectacularly sunny and only -4C. Downright balmy!

On a final note I am off to Toronto (for the first time in my life!) on a business trip tomorrow! I know, business trip! Two weeks ago I didn't even have a job. I even get to take the train! How cool is that?

Hope you all have a great Sunday.

Sad about not being a SAHD

2008-02-24T14:23:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know, I just wrote this big huge long blog about my SAHD life and wouldn't you know it I go and ruin the whole deal. That's right, I finally got a job!

I started on Tuesday at DFAIT as a policy (wonk) officer. It is so far pretty interesting and I like the people I am working with. Lots of writing and reading papers and researching stuff. Good science geek work that makes me happy. I imagine that most of you would be blown away to see me flying a desk and absolutely bowled over to see me wear a tie and, heaven forbid, jacket to work everyday! Linds says I look handsome though, so who am I to argue with a pregnant women carrying the back-up heir to the throne?

Of course getting a job has not been a simple thing. It took months to arrive at this point and then we had child care issues on top of it. When it first looked like I was going to get the job we contacted a home daycare provider who came highly recommended, Luke and I went over to see her, and all was great. Then the job fell through/got put on hold. Then the job came back two weeks later but the daycare provider was on vacation. In the end it all worked out and Luke had his first half day on Friday. The kind of cool thing was Linds got to stay home with him for a week and do all the things I normally did. They went to playgroup, the pool, Costco all the fun things that I always talk about. I was glad she got a chance to do that.

So tomorrow our new life begins in earnest. We have to coordinate all three of us to be up by 6:30 (that's Lukes job) fed (that's mine) dressed (Linds) and out the door by 7:50am. Good fun. We will drop Luke off at daycare, then Linds will drop me off for the last mile walk to work and then she will drive over to Quebec for work. Then the whole thing gets done in reverse in the afternoon! Good fun!

All that being said, now that I don't have nap time to be productive anymore, I need to go do some work for my special ed online class.

Better busy than bored.

The SAHD Life

2008-02-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

No, not the sad, boo hoo, life although it does feel that way sometimes.

I am talking about the life of a Dad on Duty or a Stay At Home Dad. Lately, it seems that a lot of people are asking me what Luke and I do all day. So I figured I should do a day, or week in the life of us.

All weekdays begin the same. Around 4:30 or 5 Luke usually begins the wake up process. I go in and continuously put him back to sleep so that Mom can, in theory, sleep. We all know how that works. Around 6:30 he gets to come into bed with us for a morning, um... feed. We call it something else but seeing as this is a family show...

Sometime after that Linds gets up with him and I get to recoup some sleep until 7:15. Luke runs in an wakes me up Linds showers, Luke eats my breakfast and complains when it is done.

8ish - Mom leaves. Lately this has stopped involving screaming and now mainly involves us standing at the door waving.

8:15-8:30 Luke has breakfast. Yogurt, toast with PB or oatmeal and a half a banana.

Monday's and Fridays are our free days at this point. We might go to the pool or playgroup or we might just stay home. Usually we go downstairs and play with the trains and this kitchen. Sometimes, quite often lately, we cook up some trains on the stove and then wash them in the play sink. Good fun!

We also may go out for a walk or run if it is nice out. It has been pretty cold lately so we haven't been doing this.

If it is one of the other days we go elsewhere.

Tuesdays and Thursdays we go to the free playgroup at the Early Years Centre.

I am finally starting to get into the "in" crowd and have a number of moms and caregivers and even a few other dads that I talk to. One of our neighbors goes on Tuesday so I usually talk with her while Luke and her daughter rip around the place. There are lots of trucks and blocks and even food in the play kitchen so we don't have to cook trains.

On Thursday the lady in charge of the playgroup is Chinese so she and I and the other Chinese people that come on Thursday practice my Chinese. I really enjoy this and find that I am remembering more words now. I still can't comprehend for beans but I try.

If it is Wednesday we go to the pool or Daddy's playgroup. The pool is great. For $2.70 we both get in and can use the pools for an hour. They even have a jacuzzi pool to warm us up. The pools are all heated but not enough when he is in an out all the time. Luke still loves the water and we have a good time.

11ish.

We come home from where ever we are. Often Luke sleeps for 10 minutes in the car. We play, get the mail, shovel the snow off the driveway whatever until 11:45.

11:45 Lunch.

Lately this has been PB&J an apple and maybe some leftover whatever. I still try to get him to eat different things but it is an uphill battle.

After lunch we clean up the kitchen, load the dishwasher and play. See video below

This persists until he starts to wind down and brings me book after book to read.

1-1:30 Nap time

This is the starting and depends on when he woke up that morning. Usually he sleeps for between 2 and 3 hours.

During this time I work. Job hunting, doing assignments for my online special ed class or study if I am tutoring that night. I also study Chinese, usually on Wednesdays for an hour or so.

3:30 - 4:30

Sometime in here he wakes up. We have crackers and water and fruit and play until mama comes home.

At this point I am usually done in. Luke, in case you hadn't realized it, is a busy little man. He doesn't stop moving all day and that means neither do I. I usually cook dinner while Linds amuses Luke and then it is off to the bath and then I put him to sleep.

At this point we are both dead to the world. We watch a bit of TV together and then pass out to start it all over again.

Makes you want kids doesn't it?

I wouldn't give it up for anything. Well except a job that would allow me to stay home a few mornings a week while still making enough money to pay the bills....

The Month from Hell!

2008-02-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Now, I am a pretty upbeat guy but the last month has driven me to the edge.

I think it was fair to assume things were going to look up for me this year. I had a job interview lined up with very positive prospects of getting it. We might actually have the money to finish some of our projects in the spring and well, it was the new year and things looked good.

Boy what a difference a month makes.

The job, after several weeks of yeses and no's is still up in the air awaiting my security clearance. If that comes through soon enough I will in fact have a job, at least for a month. Talk about the emotional rollercoaster. One day its "yes, you have a job" the next its, "no funding" then its on again then the security clearance reared its ugly head. Its really beyond anyones control but it still makes for a rough few weeks.

The other major trauma this month? Well surely it must be that the Packers didn't make it to the superbowl. That was a tragedy of monumental proportions. Ok, so that is a rather minor blip on the radar and means I can actually watch the game this weekend and not care who wins. Shane does not have that luxury, being a fan of the G-men, so we will be cheering for the underdogs as a show of solidarity.

Truly the other major trauma of the month, as most of you know was the loss of most of Lukes life in pictures. That is in fact a tragedy. I realized that some of my favorite pictures of him are just gone. gone. gone.

That sucks!

I also had a relaitvely bad game of Ultimate last night, mostly because I have a pulled muscle, but it still just sucks to not be able to play like I would like to. Nobody to blame but myself there, since I am not stretching like I should be.

About the only good thing that happened was that Uncle Kevin came to see Luke last weekend! Luke was very happy to see him, he gets bored of his parents I am sure, and spent lots of time playing with the trains with Uncle Kevin and walking in the snow.

So really, I am beyond ecstatic to see the backside of January and am loving that February started with a massive (hopefully) snowstorm/blizzard. It should be a duzey, with up to a foot or more of snow! Yes, Linds and I are crazy. We look forward to massive snowfalls much like most people look forward to summer. So far there is an inch on the ground and I did a quick shovel to get the blood flowing. Luke is also ready to clean up his act! The boy is obsessed with brooms, mops and vacuums!

Bring on the snow, it hides the tears of Janurary.

EDITED TO ADD: Oh yeah, and then February started off not so good. Shoveling the 15+ inches of snow we got today, Kyle got a bit overzealous with the snow shovel and knocked the drivers side mirror off the Mazda. So we'll have to get that fixed, and I'm sure it won't be cheap. At this rate it starts to feel like the world is against us... doesn't it?

What good are brothers?

2008-01-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Sorry that should read "What good brothers are good for."

Over Christmas we were presented with the question of what to do with Scotty boy for the extra 5 days my parents burdened us with him. What a burden he was too, let me tell you! He cleaned up after dinner, set the table, babysat Luke while I went to work... Maybe I am taking the wrong tone here.

The truth of the matter is having Scotty here was AMAZING! Not only is he a super nice kid (I can still call him that, he's my little bother) but he has crazy skills with tools and crafty related things. I can build things, our dad taught me that much, but Scotty can craft them! When he makes something it looks like a professional built it. I guess it is because he is a professional, but hey, why split hairs.

So anyway, back to the point of this story. Scotty got sent over early to do some construction work around the house. The poor boy had to suffer through huge snowfalls and the coldest temps of the winter in the garage while using the table saw. The end result was every task we had laid out that needed doing got done. Occasionally I or dad, when he got here, helped but the driving force was Scotty. Here are some pictures, with brief descriptions of the work done.

The faucet he and my dad installed! Thanks mom and dad for the Christmas present!The most amazing piece of work he did, in my opinion. These cabinet boxes were built to exactly match the ones installed by the builder so that all we had to do was buy doors. Scotty didn't have the tools to make the doors here or he would have done that too he said. They look so good that the cabinet company guy who came by to finally fix a door that was the wrong color said they looked like ones the company had made! He built these in the garage! These lights, also a gift from grandma and grandpa, were installed by Scotty and I. Amazingly, I can install lights (without getting electrocuted) but half way through I got called away by something else and he finished. Scott built these for us for Christmas. In Hawaii but all the same they are fantastic! He saw the sorry state of our current cutting boards and had mom bring these. If you would like some for yourself send me an email. I only charge a small commission.

The chair rail was cut and installed by Scotty after Linds and I painted it.

Oh yeah, then there was the laundry shelf in the basement.

The cat door into the laundry room so that we don't have to leave the big door open.

He and my dad drywalled part of Luke's playroom to make it warmer!

Scott helped my dad and I run the wiring through the walls for the surround sound. The basement rocks out now! Harry Potter was great when we watched it a few weeks ago.

And finally, he built this shelf for our master bathroom to store stuff on.

Seriously, did I mention he did all this while it was -15C (5F)? Does anyone have a cooler or more skilled brother? Come on throw down I dare you. My brother will build boxes around yours.

Snowshoe adventures

2007-12-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for updates from Christmas don't look here.

Try Luke's blog.

I finally had a chance, and the time to do it, to take out my new snowshoes (that I got last Christmas) for a trial run. I had used them in the backyard but this was the first real distance go. I did about 1.5 Km on them with the added twist of dragging The Luke, no mean feat that.

I finally decided on a pair of Atlas 1035 snowshoes when I got them and am very happy I went for the bigger size. I have dropped enough weight in the last 3 months (30 lbs) that I am in the smaller snowshoe size, but figuring that I would be hauling around Luke I wanted as much "float" as possible.

Boy did I need it. With about 3 feet of total snow here, more on the way tonight, it was deep and dragging Luke in his sled was hard work. My mom bought him a little "baby boggin" at the hardware store and I rigged up a harness for it so I can drag him behind me. I took one of my old climbing harnesses, unhooked the legs and built a sling system to hook to the sled.You can tell by the pictures that Luke was ecstatic! Actually he seemed to enjoy himself and we were out for over an hour. The whole thing seemed to work pretty well and it was comfortable for me which is a factor if I am going to do this regularly. Hopefully I can get Linds out with me and get some pictures of the whole getup and get her to do some of the work as well!

On Grinches and Christmas spirit

2007-12-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, even in the frozen, and at the moment very snowy, north there are Grinch's. I came out of the house on Wednesday and looked up towards the Hawaiian flag flying above the snowy expanse that is our front yard only to realize that the flag was not there! Stolen. It makes me sad because it is just a mean thing to do and also doesn't really show the Aloha spirit.

I mean really, why steal a flag? Is it because it looks like a British flag or just different? Anyway, that was a bit of a downer. I guess I will just drill a hole through the next pole and lock it to the holder. Can't really lock up the flag but I can make it harder to steal. I won't not put one up though.

The Christmas spirit is alive and well though up here. Lots of people have lights on their houses and the snow just gives it a special kind of feel. I am happy to say that I am the only person in the neighborhood with lights on the outside second floor of their house. Now my lights are much more sedate than in years past but still nice. We have to start out small right? Break the neighbors in slowly and all that.
The real factor is that as oppose to DC, I can't climb out on the roof, in short sleeves, and rappel down the house. The fact that it was -20C the day we put up the lights also played a role. All that being said I think it looks nice. The glow of the LED lights in the backyard through the snow is very fun.On the family front Scotty arrived yesterday, just in time for the biggest snow storm in 60 years! They are forecasting as much as 60cm (2 feetish (like a fetish but with more than one foot)) of snow by tomorrow. Scott is a bit underwhelmed by it all and in true Margenau fashion is sleeping on the couch! Actually he is blown away by all of it and is stoked to see it snow finally.
We are decorating the tree today and then maybe if it clears up we will go sledding. When I get the pictures I will update on the Christmas Sumo party we went to last night.

PS. I wrote this about a week ago but the computer crashed with the pictures on it. All the Margenau's are here and well now.

Snow!!! For real this time!

2007-12-03T08:39:00.000-05:00

I know what you are saying, "How much longer can he talk about snow?"

I figure about another 6 months, easily.

Yesterday and today we got about 20-30 cm with about another 20 on the way today. That's more than a foot you all south of the border. Linds actually didn't go to work this morning. Not because it was closed, because without snow tires she couldn't drive. Our street hasn't been plowed yet and only people in SUVs with snow tires are making it. In fact the guy across the street go pretty good and stuck and had to shovel his car out and then it still took him about 5 tries to get down the street.

It really is a pretty snow though. Light and fluffy and not hard to shovel, well at least since we bought a new shovel and replaced that sorry excuse for a shovel we got in Virginia. What do you expect though, if this much snow fell in NOVA we would be out of school and work for a week. Here they cancelled buses but kids are still expected to go to school. Even the airport is still open.

I hear the west coast of Canada got a good dump too. We ordered that up special for you. Didn't want you all to feel left out.

PS. I got the Christmas lights up and will post pictures at some point. I just need some good night shots.

Luke vs. the snow

2007-11-22T14:20:00.000-05:00

I think the snow won

Today we had about 6 inches of snow fall. Pretty awesome after spending so many years in DC. I mean there, 0.5 inches would constitute the end of the world. Here life went on as normal with people just driving a bit slower. I think the most interesting thing, for Luke anyways, were all the snow plows!

We went for a walk this morning up to the Hasty Mart. We needed milk. It was snowing pretty hard so I put Luke in the Chariot put on the jogging tire and off we went. He was snug as a bug with all his wrappings. Just imagine me, sweating because its only -4C, pushing the stroller through snow drifts so deep they went almost to the axle on the stroller. I wish I had the camera with me.

After lunch it was time to shovel the driveway. Ours is so small I decided to shovel the neighbors too. We share a drive and it seemed like the neighborly thing to do. Luke got all bundled up in his snow pants and jacket, hat mittens and boots and off he went.

I don't think he really liked the snow blowing on him. His face tells the storey. So we got it all shoveled and came in side for some water and cookies. Now we are off to bed. Hopefully we get more snow. Once Luke has real waterproof mittens I will let him do more shovelling. He seemed to enjoy it. Ok back to the football.

Happy Thanksgiving. I know I am thankful for a day with my boy in the snow. What are you thankful for?

SNOW!!!

2007-11-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

Yay!!! Winter has finally arrived!

No more days in shorts outside in the sun. Now it is time for boots, coats, hats and gloves! Get your snow shovels ready!!

About midnight it started snowing and it hasn't let up yet. It is that big wet flake variety and so far we have about 2 inches (5cm for you metrically minded). Are you ready for it family?

Luke did not seem to be a big fan of it when Linds took him out in it this morning. He will learn to love it. He will get another chance when we go out to Costco when he gets up from his nap.
Ok, I am off to stare out the window while pretending to study chemistry.

On being a Real fan

2007-11-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

Just a short note on an article Linds sent to me. For all of us who think we are real fans of any team, not just the Almighty Green Bay Packers, here is something to make us think.

This guy quit his job, sold his house, packed up kids and wife (definitely hang on to that one man she is a keeper) and moved to Green Bay to follow the Packers to every game this year. Did I mention that said house, job, kids and wife all happened to be in Australia?

http://www.theonceinalifetimefan.com/index.php/siteNew/thestory/

If only my wife would let us do it. I mean, hey, I wouldn't even have to quit my job...

What do you think Linds?

Pardon Me...

2007-11-17T16:12:00.000-05:00

...Do you have any Grey Poupon?

What you say?

If Luke could talk, and someday maybe he will, that would be what he would ask for. The boy loves dijon mustard! I know! A while ago I was making a sandwich and Luke was clamouring agasint my leg while I put the mustard on. A little bit was on the butter knife so I let him have a nibble. He came back for more!

Now he gets it on his rice cracker with hummus and dijon. On his broccoli bites in fact last night he even ate some chicken when we put dijon on it. Crazy child.

I'm sure my mom is saying memories of Scotty who ate ranch dressing one everything for many years.

We also discovered last night that Luke likes sundried tomato sauce. Of course he won't eat chicken or steak or turkey or pretty much any meat that we put in front of him.

His favorite food? Pasta. Penne, rotti, fusilli, ravioli it doesn't matter. If it is pasta he will eat it and this is the only way we get him to eat meat. Usually in the sauce but he does like ravioli too.

We have a feeling that his crazy pasta fetish is due to the company we kept while Linds was pregnant. Those crazy Italians in Virginia, Maria and Mario, must have used subliminal messages or some new fangled American gadget to influence him. We will know they are responsible if he all of a sudden starts rooting for the Sox and the Pats...

Life updated

2007-11-09T21:06:00.001-05:00

Alright, so I know I am getting as bad as Grandma Margenau about updating but really life has been busy. Between Grandma Lynne, Luke, job interviews, cleaning, tutoring and now Ultimate well, I feel like a real adult with a full-on life.

So let this serve as an update for the last most of a month.

In no particular order...

Yes, life has been busy. I started tutoring for a tutoring company here in Ottawa. It gives me a good in to the area and lets me ease my way into tutoring. It is a bit different than teaching but enjoyable.

Through all of this remember I am still dad on duty, maybe it should be dad upon duty (dud). Luke and I have been doing a lot, we go for walks and runs we watch the trucks work in the `hood, and finally this week we went to a daddy's playgroup.

The highlight of a few weeks ago was the continuation was of the annual Jack-O-Lantern party. Linds and I started this in Hamilton, NZ with some of the people we lived with and have manged to keep it up ever since. Each year it is a bit different. This year we had our old/new friends Jo and Rich over. The menu was pumpkin hummus (good), pumpkin juice (I liked it but everyone else just humored me, except Linds who didn't even humor) and pumpkin soup (great!). The soup was a recipe picked up in NZ from one of the original pumpkin carving posse, Erin.

Yay Halloween, see Luke's blog for more picks of his second Halloween.

Jobs...

Right, still need one of those. Is there a job available watching football?....

I am a firm believe in when it rains, it pours. In the course of two days I got two interviews. First, a rather interesting job a the airport came calling. Baggage screener. I did very well on the test, 87.3% of the time I can identify a bag with a knife or gun in it! However upon going to the second interview I think it might not be a good fit. Stay tuned.

The second and far more interesting email came from a very good private school here in Ottawa. I had applied for a job there, several times, and while they already had someone to teach Chemistry, circumstances meant they needed a tutor for their chem kids. Enter me.

Chemistry is tough! I have been studying since they offered me the job. The nice thing about it is it is only 3 days a week for 2 hours a day. It isn't enough to be my only job but it is positive cash flow. It is short term for now but I am hopeful that it will become more.

Ok, so to finish this random posting, Grandma Lynne has been here and without her there is no way I would have been able to attend the interview or apply for the other 15 or so jobs I have applied for in the last 2 weeks. Luke loved it, he got spoiled out of his mind. There are new trucks, new toys and lots of new skills. We can now stack, shape sort and of course we still terrorize Piko.

Ok, I'm not even sure what I have talked about, but suffice to say that I have a been busy. We are having a good time and look forward to having my family here in a few weeks and to winter getting into high gear. We need snow, send some if you find it...

Making the house a Home

2007-10-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

The finger is healed so I can type full time again.

When does a house become a home? Is it when all your stuff is in the house and in its place? Is it when you come home and feel like it is home? Is it when you feel comfortable to walk around in your underwear?

I don't really know the answer, but I think we are starting to feel like this is our home. Luke certainly does. He runs around and rips things to pieces. He loves the stairs which is usually followed by tossing all the books on his bookshelf to the ground.

Ok, but what about the house you say? Well, in the last 2 odd months we have made some major changes inside. I won the battle with the builder so the AC unit is getting moved next month.

My major victory house-wise has been the reclaiming of the garage for the car.

As you can see it is a tight fit. The bikes are right above the hood of the Murano. Right now the Chariot hands to the right of the bikes but it is going to move, too hard to get to the garbage can. The whole thing is a study in space organization. So much so that yesterday the neighbor across the street came over to look at the shelves and bike hangers and then went off to the home despot to buy the same setup. Maybe they will get one of their cars in the garage and stop parking in front of ours!

In the house their have also been a number of changes. Mainly, we sold the nice hid-a-bed we bought in DC and moved the purple couch into the living room. We also moved the TV cabinet to the corner to open up the space more. Now we actually have seating for more than 3 people in the living room.

The dining room has also been transformed. The table was finally reclaimed after this picture was taken. Linds old desk is now the computer desk for the laptop and sits to the left of the hutch. Yes, mom, we eat dinner every night at the table.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the upstairs or the basement. But they also have been finished up. Pictures on the walls, the purple love seat in the basement to give us a bit more seating there and the headboard up in the bedroom.

I guess if you want to see what it looks like you will have to come visit!

The Finger Revealed

2007-10-08T10:56:00.000-04:00

So after 24 hours the wrapping came off and here is what we have.

It was pretty sore and when I pulled the last layer off and the newly grown skin went with it my stomach did some gymnastics.

Fortunately nurse Lindsay was there to wrap it back up after a much needed shower.

Otherwise Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Canucks!

Don't play with Knives

2007-10-07T08:03:00.000-04:00

So I was going to write a big blog this weekend about how far the house has come.

Instead, I tried to cut off the tip of my finger on Saturday while making chili. Fortunately the knife was really sharp so it was a clean cut.

It sure is nice the ER is just a 5 minute walk away. I strolled over had my finger wrapped up and was told no stitches, "Its just a flesh wound!" and came home. Why is it always that finger?

The chili was quite good.

Will the construction never end?!?!

2007-09-24T09:10:00.001-04:00

I hope not! Or at least Luke hopes not!

This morning during breakfast the construction crews returned with a vengeance.

In front of the house, behind the house, even on the side of the house! All kinds of big machines. In the backyard there was a CAT D3GXL Track-Type Tractor! Along with it were two backhoes! Both were CAT 420D Backhoe Loader. Luke was enthralled!

The best was yet to come. In front of the house was none other than the CAT 226 Skid Steer Loader! The very same one Grandma Lynne and My Janie gave to Luke a few weeks ago. We simply had to pose for a picture with it!

To say it was an exciting morning is an understatement.

And no, I am not such a big machine dork that I knew the names of all the model numbers. I am a big enough dork though to go look them up!

When the Whirlwind settled

2007-09-21T08:45:00.000-04:00

Big surprise, we have been busy the last few weeks/months.

As such several things have been left unwritten about. Chief among them being my little brother Scotty turning 21. Thanks to Kevin (Lukes Godfather and one of my longtime friends) I was able to fly standby to Hawaii to help Scotty celebrate. Kevin and I left the Saturday before Scotts B-day and made all the flights we needed to. Scotty and I started out the next day after church with a trip to Sandy's which for the first time in a long time, for me, was good all the time I was there. The much dreaded Hurricane Flosie was pushing in a swell and it was swell.

The trip was so fast that I didn't even attempt to see most of my friends. There was no Shack Night with the gang and for that I am sorry. All that being said it was a great couple of days. The waves got better I got to spend a good bit of time with Scotty and finally on Tuesday, August 14, I got to help Scotty along into adulthood with a couple of beers. For those of you who don't know, in our family neither Scotty or I drank, at all, until we turned 21. Scott didn't really appreciate the beers we bought him and that's not a bad thing. As long as he doesn't become a Bud Light drinker we can still be friends.

The other major event of the last few weeks was my gaining of a new brother in-law. Or is it step brother in-law? Regardless Johnny (Johnnie?, John?) is a super cool guy and pretty handy with a pipe wrench. Besides Luke needed an Uncle John, everyone does. Why I don't have any pictures of said Uncle Johnny is a mystery... But I do have a picture of the wedding cake...

I didn't see much of the wedding, I was chasing Luke, but what I did was funny and beautiful. Linds couldn't tell me what I missed she was chasing a dog but we had a good time. Hanging out with family is always relaxing (Yes, Jim, I know it wasn't relaxing for you) and we didn't have to think about the house for a few days.

The trip ended with a couple of days with Grandma Lynne and My Janie (that is to be her new name I have been told, no longer Aunt Jane). As usual we ate too much good food, especially the apples, if possible relaxed even more. We also got to see Julie and Braeden and his new brother Toby along with their aunt Lara and her new baby Dylan.

Luke got to ride on the ferry to Vancouver and finally meet his Auntie Siobian and her daughter Juliette and also Auntie Erica. All in all a relaxing trip and now we are back here, where the house is slowly but surely becoming a home.

Big Waves, Little Waves, Microwaves!

2007-09-04T14:46:00.000-04:00

I wrote this a week ago but am only just now getting a chance to upload the pictures. Vacationing is hard work!

3 hours, one trip to Home Depot, and a half bottle of Tums later we have a microwave.

It looks good too. We were sure it was too big, that it was going to be too close to the stove, I even feared the damn thing would fall off the wall pulling down the cabinet when it did. It hasn't, yet. I think the most amazing thing is that it works!

I think we are turning the corner. We are organizing the spaces, the basement is organized, the shelves I built in the garage and basement are still on the wall and supporting things. Yes, it is small but I think that once we get the living room worked out we will be OK.

There have been several questions about the big TV and what I did with it. Well, the movers tried to get it down the stairs into the basement and it wouldn't go. The space was too low and the TV too big.

So, what to do? Why, I voided all the warranties and did what Samsung said never to do. I opened it up and took the damn thing apart. With the movers holding the TV stable I took off the back panel, removed the guts held them carefully in my hand and then using a wrench unscrewed the glass base from the rest of the TV. Then with the movers holding the whole thing, I stuffed the guts back in, and turned away as they again took it down the stairs. This time it worked, barely.

At the bottom I put the glass base on the ground the movers held the TV in place and and I screwed it all back together. Upon plugging it in I said a quick prayer and turned it on. Victory!

Don't try this at home on your own. It too required a fair amount of the Tums bottle to get through. I think we will rent it with the house when we leave.

New Perspectives

2007-09-01T21:06:00.000-04:00

We are getting there. Slowly but surely we are moving out the boxes and settling into our new home in Ottawa. It is definitely taking some time. As you'll see in the pictures below, we have a LOT of stuff. In fact, we've got a lot of stuff that just won't fit. I've been wanting to post a blog called "I don't think it's going to fit" as we find ourselves saying that easily a hundred times a day. But exhaustion (and the need to dig a new path to my side of the bed) always gets the better of me, so we haven't blogged much lately. Tomorrow I'll post to the baby blog too, some pics of Luke's last few days in Washington.

I think we are coming to a simple realization: our life just doesn't fit here. We moved to Washington more than 3 years ago - going from 1000 sq feet to almost 3000. Just like fish in an acquarium, we grew to fill our space. Now, scaling back to a meagre 1700 sq feet is painful. But its not just that - its the awkwardness of the spaces.

The basement TV / recreation room is nice and big, but the curving staircase and low ceilings dictate what furniture could - or could not - make it into the room. The new sofabed we bought for that room couldn't make it - its now in our living room. Kyle's big TV almost couldn't make it (until he took matters into his own hands, voided the warranty, and rearranged all the pieces to smoosh on their way down the stairs... it worked.)

The dining room was - according to architect drawings - the same size as our one in Washington. But that was if you considered the hallway as part of the dining room. So its about 4 feet smaller than we expected. Needless to say we won't be having more than 4 people for dinner in the near future - our extra dining chairs now live in the basement. As do our nice leather bar stools - no space for them either. We don't have a bar anymore!

The dining room - with our new buffet & hutch (for storage!)

The kitchen is much smaller, and it is galley-style rather than open-concept. Our cabinet space has taken a turn for the worse, and our biggest issue is pantry space. In Washington we had a huge - almost-walk-in-size - pantry. Here, we have one tiny shelf. We still have 2 boxes of food stuff (pasta, crackers, sauce mixes, etc.) in the kitchen that I just don't know what to do with. Maybe we'll just eat out of those boxes for a few months. The other big issue in the kitchen is the microwave / hood fan. We bought one of those fancy microwave hood fans - the ones that sit above the stove. But when we look at the space that the builder left us in the kitchen for the microwave, we realise that once its installed, it is only about 14 inches above the stove top. And its a gas stove top... so that is a bit nerve-wracking. But beyond that - putting it so close to the stove means we will actually have to bend down to read the display on the stove. Surely that won't be convenient... We haven't installed it yet, and are trying to decide whether or not we will. The simple fact is, if we don't, there is no space to put a regular microwave... another issue we'd have to deal with.

The living room is probably our biggest issue so far. We grossly under-estimated the space available. Somehow, we measured it, and thought it would be bigger. It wasn't. Our beloved eggplant-colored couches - the first major purchase we made together!! - don't fit. They now sit in our garage, waiting to be listed for sale on craigslist. The new sofabed has - be default - become our living room couch. It sits opposite our TV cabinet, and when you add a small coffee table, we literally have to turn sideways to pass through the living room. The computer desk that always sat in the living room has now been moved to the spare bedroom - sorry future guests, there weren't any other options! We are having a hard time getting used to the new small size of our living room. Even Luke isn't thrilled as he hardly has any room to run around and play in it.

...Our old Living Room...

...New Living Room...

Our couches - in the garage. They don't even fit there... they have to be up on their ends!

Our master bedroom is - remarkably - almost the same size as our one in Washington. But, thinking it was smaller, we sold a bunch of furniture including a dresser, and we lost a lot of closet space. Needless to say, the pile of clothing on either side of our bed is about 4 feet tall. Anyone selling a dresser in Ottawa? We're in desperate need for some storage. Our master bath is also about half the size, so we are trying to figure that out too.

Luke's room is quite a bit smaller (are you seeing the theme yet...???) although we have managed to get everything into it. So far, he seems to be pretty happy here.

Luke's old room...

Luke's new room...

So for now, it is slowly becoming home. We just need to get rid of most of our belongings, and change our perspectives about our space. We have to remember that we almost didn't take our home in Alexandria when we first saw it - we thought it was way too big for us. Now, we can't imagine fitting our lives into this space that is evidently way too small. So hopefully our perspectives will change once again in the next 3 years. I wonder how long it will take for this to become "normal"...

Go Big or Go Home

2007-08-25T11:43:00.000-04:00

Linds said this at dinner last night and then we realized it meant we had to go big since we can't go home. No home to go to yet. At least we can't sleep there. The cats miss us and that is sad.

The painters started painting this morning. Looks good.

I changed the title of the blog, again. I will find some more interesting title sooner or later. If you all out there in reader land think of any let me know. I have considered a few and then discarded them. Here for your reading pleasure are the rejects:

Life in Hull (Would have worked if we lived on the Quebec side of the river). Anyone know what the place on the other side of the river that you take the barge across into the land of the dead is called? You know Erebus and the river that separates the living and the dead?

C eh? N eh? D eh? Kinda lame but is the punchline of a decent joke.

Life in the Frozen North. Again, lame but fitting.

And finally,

Mandarin, its not just for Oranges anymore! I still sorta like this one.

Anyways, the boy should be waking up soon and then it is back down to the house to get linds and then do some more shopping. Have to build shelves int he garage and the Laundry room and the wine cellar. Block off some holes in the laundry room so the cats stop crawling through them and there are about a million other things to do.

OH YEAH!

If you are trying to call us on our old cells they are not on anymore. And if you are trying to call the home number it hooks up to Linds cell. Give us a week or so and everything will be right. New numbers will be sent out by email. If you don't make the cut drop us a comment here and we will (probably, unless we are severing all ties with you) send you the numbers.

Peace.

Home sweet Home

2007-08-23T19:53:00.000-04:00

For everyone who doubted we would make it: we did! Our long miserable day actually shaped up to go really well, and we arrived in Ottawa around 3:30pm today with 2 cars, 2 cats, the baby, and both Kyle and I somewhat intact. Luke and I left the hotel this morning at about 3:00am (the result of a missed alarm at 2:10 - we were supposed to leave at 2am!). Luke was tucked snugly into his comfy baby car seat, which lets him recline most of the way, along with his SleepyBear. I blasted his sleepytime music on the car stereo on repeat and he happily slept until almost 7am! In the end, I woke him up in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania because after a cup of coffee, 2 frappuccinos, and a bunch of water, I desperately needed to find a bathroom. He was in great spirits, and the two of us had a long leisurely 1-hr breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It was nearly empty so we had lots of room to run around and he got to chase big trucks in the parking lot - his favourite road trip activity. We got back on the road, I was prepared for a bit of a fight, but half an hour later he went back to sleep! That nap was almost 2 hrs long, and at the end of that, I kept him happy for about an hour with treats and snacks, then it was time to stop for lunch.

Meanwhile, Kyle got the cats up and left the hotel around 5am. They pretty much drove straight through, although he did stop for some breakfast and let the cats explore the car on their own. We did intend to let Piko roam the car (Oli prefers his cat kennel for drives) but Piko was just too exciteable and spent most of the time climbing onto the steering wheel, and trying to get out the windows so Kyle put him back in his carrier where both cats happily slept for most of the trip! Oli gets anti-anxiety medications for his car trips -it's a disaster if he's not doped up - and they make him really chatty, which is funny for Oli who is normally a quiet, reserved cat. So he talked away to Kyle for most of the trip, but otherwise didn't throw up or anything else.

Kyle and the cats met me at lunch, about 10 miles south of the border. It took us almost an hour to 'export' our cars from the US and make it through the border, then after a brief traffic jam on the 401, we got into Ottawa in good time. Oli and Piko are spending the week before our furniture arrives in our barren house - I think they are feeling pretty lonely after doing the same in Washington - they were so loving last night you'd think they were different cats! We will be at the house a lot this week though so we can spend lots of time with them. There appears to be a neighbour cat a few doors down who is VERY friendly, and wants to come into our house! We have been thinking of letting Oli be an outdoor kitty here, so we'll see if he can make friends with the neighbourly grey kitty.

Anyways, no pictures, just a status update - for now, we are here, happily in the Hampton Inn in Ottawa (our home away from home, we just love it here!) and we expect our appliances to arrive tomorrow, then the furniture next Wednesday. Lots to do before then, so we'll be around. Going to get new cell phones tomorrow, we'll post the phone numbers here. Good night everyone! We're off to bed.. what a day!

The Week in Review

2007-08-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

I think it is The Who, that said, "11 hours in a tin can, there's got to be another way!"

That's how I feel after the week plus of travelling we just did. Can't someone discover a way to teleport us there and back? 13 hours on the road for a drive that take only 9. That is life with a baby and as Linds mentioned on the other blog, he did very well.

The drive up was nice, except for the traffic, and we saw lots of cool things, like a truck loaded with fire hydrants! Where else could you see such a thing except in upstate New York?

We also got to drive by the infamous Sing Sing prison, at least I am pretty sure it was Sing Sing. It had a ton of razor wire and some mondo huge fences.

At the end of this first journey was a beautiful, if hot, wedding for some good friends. Unfortunately the church was so big, or maybe it was the heat waves rising off all of us, that my camera had a hard time resolving pictures. They were either too dark or too blurry. I needed a flash like the 3 wedding photogs had! However, I got smart, well smarter, at the reception and used the video mode to record a little bit of the action. I think it shows both of them in a fairly good light.

After the wedding it was off to Ottawa and another 7 hours of driving. Luke once again tolerated us as long as we stopped to show him the trucks every once in a while. That's how I know he is my boy!

Then we had the joys of getting the house. Linds talked about it quite a bit in the other blog so I will leave that to her and talk about the house itself. This was the first time I had seen it since it was a hole in the ground and I was very excited. It really is quite nice. I think we did a good job of picking complimentary colors for the flooring and cabinets and counters.

Luke found all of this a bit much and after a major emotional blowout, fell asleep in my lap. We spent the next few days picking appliances, taking measurements of the house and windows and starting the process of getting it ready for us to move in.

I spent several hours one day following the instructions of the site supervisor and taping with aluminum tape all the leaks in the AC system in the basement. He said that you can lose 20% of the efficiency through air lost to gaps in the piping.

There were/are a lot of gaps. That being said, it was kind of fun to play detective and crawl around in the furnace/laundry room.

One of the neatest parts of the week was to watch the transformation of the backyard. The day we got there it was bare dirt, not soil, dirt. There was no fence just some posts. The next day the fence was in and by the afternoon there was soil. At some point I left to put Luke down for a nap and Linds said that over the course of 15 minutes the back yard went from dirt to sod.

So cool!

This is what the front and back of the house looks like. Hopefully we will have grass in the front when we return.

Even though we hope to have grass there we may be forced to pave it over so that we have space to park the car. With only a one car garage and a short driveway it is going to be tough to move the cars all the time depending on who is dropping off Luke and all that. We won't pave it with blacktop, that's not allowed, but will do it with a nice interlock paver.

The really annoying thing about the back is that we thought that since it was an end unit, our air conditioner would be on the side. LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'S! Nope they stuck it right next to the stairs, in front of the sliding glass back door! I think we are going to have a discussion with them about that.

All in all though, things are looking good. We are waiting to hear back from the painters with a quote and then we will start painting, to have it done for when we move back in. We also have to pick blinds and buy some furniture since our couches in the basement won't fit in the new place.

The trip home was capped off by Luke's first trip to a Cracker Barrel and his first experience with grits. You can see the video on the other blog, but you can kind of see from his expression that he liked it, a lot.

Homeowners

2007-08-01T20:59:00.000-04:00

Its official: at 30 years old we FINALLY own a home! It has been a very long process since last May, 2006, when we came to Ottawa - 5 months pregnant - for Darren & Julia's wedding. We rented a car and wanted to spend our days driving around to get a feel for which neighbourhoods we liked. We inevitably found ourselves in the Alta Vista area, which is relatively central, along the Ottawa River. It is very close to great walking & biking paths, and seemed to have lots of amenities that we were looking for. We stumbled upon a new development in the neighbourhood and, after going back and forth with realtors, builders, and sales agents for month, on Boxing Day 2006 we officially signed a contract to have a townhouse built in the Oak Park Development by Claridge Homes.

Today we closed on that house, and used our very new keys to open the door to our first official home. In keeping with tradition, we had a bottle of wine and ordered pizza while sitting on the living room floor - something we did 4 long years ago when we moved to Ottawa the first time, and again 3 years ago when we moved to Washington. Our new house, at 289 Freedom Private, is definitely a lot smaller than where we are currently living: we are losing about 1000 sq. feet. We are going to need to be very creative in putting all our furniture into this house!

We took a walk around the neighbourhood and noticed that we are definitely buying in the right place. On our block alone, we haven't yet seen anyone who doesn't have a child under 2, or isn't currently pregnant. And everyone driving in and out of the complex, walking dogs, checking mail - all appear to be professionals in their early / mid thirties. It seems like a perfect fit for where we are in life, and a great place to make new friends.

The Role Model

2007-07-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

Today is my dad's Birthday. He turns 59. I know at some point I wrote about him in the blog but feel that I should impart some more of his wisdom.

My dad really is my role model. He has always been the person I wanted to emulate. Well at least once I wised up from being a punk kid. He must be a saint, he put up with me for all those years.

I always say to people that my dad is the most honest and upright person I know. He is a good Samaritan and just a generally helpful guy. I was so stoked, and a bit surprised, when he volunteered to nanny for us this summer. Seeing him with Luke, teaching, playing and caring for him was very neat.

All in all I know I am blessed to have him for a father. As a role model for me and for Luke. Because of my father I have grown into the man I am. At 59 years old he is still running, still doing and still learning. Dad, when I am 59, I hope I am doing as well as you are and have positively impacted as many people as you have!

Happy Birthday!

Million dollar Idea/ The best backyard ever!

2007-07-21T08:10:00.001-04:00

Yes, this is a split entry. I intended to write one yesterday and then had a second thought this morning during breakfast. We will address the more recent event first.

So here it is. A million dollar idea, free for the taking. Just remember that if you use it please give me credit and maybe kick me down a few grand. At least enough to clean up. ha ha.

I think someone should come up with a way to Teflon coat a baby! Think about how much easier they would be to clean up!

What brought about this crazy line of thought you say? Well, Luke has decided that ripping his bib off during meals is loads of laughs. Goes along with un-velcroing his diapers. ha ha, not funny. So we have sent out his bibs to get snaps installed! He isn't strong enough to pull off snaps. Anyway, he has been eating without a bib, which means eating without a shirt to save on laundry. You can see from the pictures the result. This morning it took 4 paper towels just to clean him up!
Just imagine if he were Teflon coated. No scrubbing, no mashed in food! All I would have to do would be put him in the sink and spray with the faucet! How great would that be!

At least if you aren't going to Teflon coat the boy can someone please come up with a non-stick coating for the high chair?

Part 2 - The best backyard ever!

Yes, Grandma Lynne, we know you will be appalled that we are making this next statement.

Our backyard has been turned into a construction lot and we couldn't be happier! Every morning around 6:30 dump trucks start rolling into the parking lot behind our house. The government has begun a dredging program of the waterway by our house to prevent a recurrence of the flooding that happened last year.

How does this make us happy you all ask? I will let this picture below, start us off.

Luke is absolutely obsessed with trucks!

Any time they are there, he is standing at the back windows talking away to himself and screaming out. If he is somewhere else and hears them drive in he trucks (pun intended) over to the window for a look.

When Linds gets up with him on weekdays she lets him out on the deck so he can watch them. He will literally stand there for 30 minutes watching through the railing! Free babysitting! So, this week I went out and bought him a truck. He likes to play with it, but is still more interested in the real thing.

That's my boy a real redneck, truck loving, messy eating hunk a' man!

We can't hear you...

2007-07-18T20:16:00.000-04:00

Or can we?

So yesterday the home phone started acting up. People would call and we couldn't hear them even though they could hear us! Annoying for all involved. It was also having trouble calling out.

Today it was worse. We thought it might be the phones themselves, so I swapped out an old lined phone (aghast!) to see. It worked fine for local calls. Problem solved, right? Wrong. I tried to call Ottawa, nothing.

About that time Linds calls to tell me that Sunrocket, our VOIP company had fired all its employees the day before and declared bankruptcy! How nice of them to let us know. Not even an email!

We have now switched over to Vonage, which although they have an ongoing battle with Verizon about patent stuff seems a bit more stable. The cool thing about Vonage is we can keep our same US number and also have an Ottawa number. This way people can call us from the US and not pay international rates and people in Canada can too!

All that being said, we won't have a fully working "landline" until Friday afternoon when the Vonage thingy shows up. If you are thinking about signing up for Vonage please let us know as they have a good referral program. Two months free if we refer you!

In the mean time, I we don't answer it probably isn't because we don't want to talk to you. Try the cell, if we still don't answer...

You know you have lived in Ottawa...

2007-07-13T11:06:00.001-04:00

...when you have two suitcases full of winter wear. Not small suitcases either. We are talking 36 inch monsters. The kind the airlines hate!

The worst part? I haven't even packed our real winter coats in it yet. These are just the spring/fall coats (see post on price of Aloha for further info). Well those and socks and hats and scarfs. If Linds has a scarf fetish then it appears I have a major wool sock addiction. Major. It is fed by the in laws each winter. I would imagine that half of one suitcase is socks, mostly mine. There are wool ones, fleece ones, store bought and homemade. There is even a pair of possum and dog fur socks! Very toasty.

Now you see what my life has come to. This is what I do while Luke naps. It is actually a good amount of time. I am forced to divide my tasks up into 1.5 - 2 hour blocks. Makes me happy. I don't get bored.

In other news Luke and I have been going out doing our thing most days. We go for walks and bike rides and to the pool and water park. Unfortunately since it is just me during those events their are no pictures. I didn't think it was a good idea to leave him swimming (sinking) in the pool by himself.

This week we also went to the splash park again so Luke could hang out with his harem. I think Ethan, Luke's friend and only real male rival, would have been there but he gave his mom bad directions to the splash park, so they didn't make it.

Anyway, Luke and the girls had a great time they ran around, well some of them did, the lucky ones were carried or sat, and their parents didn't have to chase after them, but you get the idea.

After such a busy day with the ladies he happily slept on the way home! I don't have any pictures of that though. 1. I fear I would crash the car while taking a picture and driving. 2. I don't dare stop for fear he will wake up!

Did I mention he is a budding soccer star? Grandpa John and our friend Maria have been teaching him to play.

As far as I am concerned he is the cutest kid period, no matter what sport he plays.

Our next great adventure

2007-07-08T08:38:00.000-04:00

Yes, we are still moving to Ottawa. For a few years at least. But at least we know what will come next: CHINA! I have accepted a position in Ottawa where I will spend the next 2 years learning Mandarin. For those of you who followed me through a painful year of french training, you know how difficult this decision has been to make! I will be in class at the Foreign Service Institute - Bisson Campus for 6.5 hours per day, 5 days per week for the next 2 years. The program does include a 6-week immersion program, living in Harbin with a local family, but we'll have to evaluate that opportunity when we come to it. 6 weeks is a LONG time away from a 2-yr old little boy... Once I finish Mandarin training, we will be posted to one of Canada's posts in the region: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hong Kong, or Taipei.

As I am involved in the trade side of the Foreign Service, China is one of the most exciting international relationships for Canada. After the US, Canadian government and business agendas really only focus on one or two other key markets. I have really enjoyed working in the Center of the Universe here in Washington, because it is a tremendously important post for Canada. China and India are two other countries that are garnering substantial political and economic focus, and at least in coming years, that will only grow. Last year there were 48 trade missions to China. Compare that to the 4 that the Embassy coordinated last year. I love the thought of being in the center of the action (of course!) and learning about bilateral relations in such a different area of the world.

The 4th, White Trash style

2007-07-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

I mean that in the best possible way. Originally I was going to call this one, White Trashin' the 4th, but figured that would be misinterpreted. The current title seemed a bit safer.

Ah the 4th, insane traffic angry crowds on The Mall, tornado warnings, thunderstorms and a BBQ on the driveway with the neighbors. How does this make it White Trash you ask?

(Isn't this the best picture? No the baby is not nursing, just sleeping. And no the beer had nothing to do with the sleeping!)

Let's go back in time a few days to my birthday.

Phillip, the neighbor, and I are talking about how this hood needs more community. We decide that this means we need to sit on the stoop and drink beer. The plan is that we will just invite people up to join us until eventually we have to put cones up in the street and get a traffic cop. And we plan to do this regularly.

Back to the present, or at least just yesterday. I see Phillip and Johanna and pitch the idea to BBQ on the driveway.

At 5:30 we convene and the grill fired up the brats went on and people rolled in. Ok, so we never go to the spilling out into the street stage and didn't need a traffic cop, but we did get a cop. One of the neighbors. He rolled in around 10 and stayed until the end, sometime around 11.

We turned on the radio in the Murano, put the food in the back and sat in lawn chairs swapping stories and sharing the evening.

Now my folks would just have called it Beer O'clock with heavy pupus, but here, in our rather suburban mecca, to not be sitting on the deck is just not done. Hence, white trash.

The price of Aloha

2007-07-02T16:47:00.000-04:00

$1800. Roughly.

At least that's what we have determined it has cost me (us) to look as good as I do on Friday's. Why do we know this? No, it's not my need to increase my wikipedia-like knowledge of otherwise useless information.

It is the result of Linds and I finally getting down to doing our inventory before we move. Each Item must be catalogued. From the cars (since they are coming with us) to how many pairs of underwear we each have (dirty or otherwise). Even the Nemoesque clown fish covered boxers I got for Christmas were tallied. The end result of this? Another pdf file to sit on a database and hopefully never acted upon. Periodically we see horror stories of entire moving trucks of Dip stuff disappearing in Europe or Africa. I know this is why we do the inventory, it just takes so much effort to do. I suppose it is less effort than starting all over with no stuff and no money coming because we didn't do one, right?

So the process continues. I own 9 pairs of dress shoes (can you say Imelda?), 12 pair of dress pants and 6 pair of casual pants and jeans. Who knew? We have 5 rain jackets, 5 vests, 7 spring coats and 3 winter coats. What about Fall?

The scariest thing is that all the stuff that is approaching the point of being crammed into this 2600 square foot house is about to be transported to our new 1700 square foot house. Anyone else see a problem here?

And the $1800? That covers the 21 aloha shirts I own, including my wedding shirt (which I like a lot) and several others that I don't. It also made me fairly famous at school and started at least two trends. At least a few people would try to wear Aloha (what they call Hawaiian) shirts on Friday and my favorite trend, 15 Days of Aloha. The last 15 days of the school year I wore a different shirt each day.

A bunch of Aloha shirts: $1800

Brightening (blinding sometimes) peoples day: priceless

1/4 of the way to 120

2007-06-29T08:42:00.000-04:00

It seems like a nicer way to say 30.

I have to say I don't feel any different. There was no grey in the hair this morning when I woke up, I checked. I guess, in my head I feel the difference, mainly I have to remind my aged brain to tell my mouth to say thirty when I am asked how old I am.

What does this year hold? Or even the next 30? Well, by the time I am half way to 120 Luke might have kids of his own! Scary thought, that. We also know that we will be spending next year on Ottawa. Still not sure what we are doing but we know Ottawa will be part of it.

For myself, I hope I get a job this year, and I hope it is a teaching one. Without that it is going to be tough for us to finish setting up the house the way we would like.

In the end though I know I am blessed to have spent the last 7 years with a great woman and the last almost a year with this beautiful boy.

By the way, my mom got a me a very cool new digital camera for my birthday. It replaces the very cool camera that Lindsay's mom gave me 4 or 5 years ago. If this one holds up as well as the last, and it is just a newer model (Canon SD800 IS) then I am in very good shape. The pictures in this blog were taken with it last night.

So for the rest of this 30th anniversary of my mothers valiant effort to raise me right... Well the Embassy was nice enough to throw a rousing birthday party for me. Free beer and steak burgers. They couldn't come out and say how happy they are for me, it wouldn't be appropriate for the other spouses, so they covered it by saying they are throwing the Canada Day party a few days early. At noon Luke and I will head to the metro for our ride to the Embassy.

This evening one of Lindsay's coworkers is going to babysit overnight, stay at the house and all, so that Linds and I can go out for dinner and then into old town with our friends. Should be a fun night and for the first time in a long time we will both get to stay out late and know that Luke is being well taken care of.

With that, I am going to go back to watching the greatest and oldest sporting event in history, Americas Cup, where Team NZ (The Hero's) are fighting to beat Alinghi (The bad guys).

I hope this day is a good one for all of you as well.

Bye Bye Birdies

2007-06-24T21:55:00.000-04:00

It has been an eventful few days for our Robin family. And tonight - the nest is empty!

We have been watching our three baby birds get bigger and bigger. We thought there were 4 to begin with, but we aren't certain. Perhaps we mistaked a fourth beak for a wing, or perhaps one died. But as they grew, it was evident there were only three. We have watched as both the mom and the dad searched for food, and continued to return to their little nest to feed their babies. It seems they spend the nights somewhere near the nest, but not actually on top of it.

Yesterday one of the robins was standing on the edge of the nest, then the next time we looked - it was outside the nest on a nearby branch! This morning, there were only 2 babies left in the nest. And by this afternoon, there was only one.

When I got home from shopping this afternoon, the nest looked empty. But I could hear the same baby bird noises we have been hearing for weeks, so I looked more closely, and found the last of the three babies just learning how to fly. It was hopping / flapping from one branch to another in the tree, and was so amazing! I laughed as I spent easily half an hour outside watching this little bird, when I only had 45 minutes to get the house cleaned and dinner started for the 10 people coming over for dinner (one of our playgroup dinners) tonight! I just couldn't leave that little robin! The baby finally flew off into another nearby tree and I knew I needed to get some things done before MY baby woke up!

Apparently baby robins jump from their nest when they are about 13 days old. It takes them another 10-15 days to become strong fliers and independent birds. Then - what makes me feel good looking at the scary dark night outside - the Robin family stays together for at least 3 weeks until the babies are independent! So somewhere, our little Robins are together and our babies are spending their first night sleeping on branches, instead of on the nest. Apparently Robin parents can have 2 groups of babies each summer, so it'll be neat to see if they have more eggs. I can't believe how fast it has all gone, for them to build a nest, raise and fledge 3 babies!

Daddy on Duty

2007-06-22T21:07:00.000-04:00

Just the three of us. Just, mommy, you and I...
Well after 3 odd months of parents, family and nannies its just us again. The most recent group was my parents and it was really neat to see them playing and interacting with Luke. It makes me understand why my brother and I grew up to be mostly good kids. I hope I can do as good a job with Luke as they did with us.

Unfortunately, my mom took all the picks while she was here and we forgot to download them before she left. That's ok though she left enough food to force us to exercise daily to stay in shape. I love having parents, whether in-laws or my own here to cook, the food is so good!

So alas, no pictures of the folks with the boy for a while.
Today was my first day as full time dad. Its hard work! My day began at 4:30 with a trip to Baltimore to deliver my parents to the airport, a quick nap when I got home and then it was me and Luke.
We went for a bike ride this morning, he likes his drag behind stroller more and more each time we go for a ride. We spent some time at music class and then rode home for lunch. Fortunately he had a nice long nap this afternoon, which allowed me to have one as well.

When we woke up we went took the metro up to Silver Spring to see Linds who was at a conference. They have a cool public spray ground (water shoots up into the air) where kids can play. Luke had a blast. He would go running up to the spouts and stick his hands in or stand there unaware it was about to shoot up this pants then giggle when he got sprayed.

We finished up with dinner at a nice restaurant, Luke is very well behaved, and then came home. Monday we begin again with Daddy on Duty.

Stay tuned for our next exciting episode.

The end

2007-06-19T20:39:00.000-04:00

The Ziggens sing a song and it goes a little something like this:

"Its great to be unemployed. Its fun for a girl or a boy." If someone knows where I can link to it for free please drop me a line. I like the song, but am not willing to buy it on iTunes.

And really that's just what I am, unemployed. I still have a job at the gym but with only three or so days of work left there its pretty much true.

Today was my last day at Sandburg and it was pretty sad. As I locked my door for the last time I admit I got a little choked up. I find it hard to believe that I spent three years in that room. All that time sleeping under the desk... Sorry, the kids all think its true.

All in all I packed up five boxes of stuff. Big boxes. Amazing that I accrued that much stuff.

I hope whoever gets the room next year appreciates all the time Linds and I spent cleaning and organizing. I know the back storage could still use some help but it is a sight better than when we went in. I clearly recall that when I went in the first day you couldn't even see the floor and the shelves were packed with junk dating back to 1979!

Wow, what a time. I really have enjoyed working at Sandburg. Despite the tough population and occasional mold, its a good place. Mainly it is due to the good people who work there.

As the day finished up I was left with just one task. The official hand over of power in the science department. Deb has taken up the mantle and that means she had to get the throne. As Department Chair she has to have The Department Chair. So as Dutton Rex rolled it to me, so I rolled it down the hall to Deb. The official handover happened just before noon, and with that my duties ended. Well at least until she calls or emails wondering where something is or what is supposed to happen at some key juncture.

To all of you at Sandburg keep on fighting the good fight. Have no fear science buds, if the kids don't get you the mold will!

God, I'm going to miss that place! If you are reading this and looking for a science teaching job in Virginia, there is not a better group of people to work with.

Robins part 2

2007-06-18T19:12:00.000-04:00

Well I am literally hours away from being out of a teaching job. The kids had their last day today and I am half way cleaned out of my room.

Linds is in Ottawa tonight so the Grands and I are doing baby duty tonight. Should be interesting.

But on to what is important. The birds. With Linds gone I figured I should keep up the picture log of our baby robins. Since I am a bit taller I can see in easier and also hold up my hands higher so the angle is a bit closer. Of course Linds big ol camera makes it a lot easier. It looks like all four of the babies are still there and looking good.

Alright, more in a few days. It is almost time to put the boy to bed.

Robin Chronicles

2007-06-16T10:32:00.000-04:00

We've got wildlife! Last year around July we noticed a Robin's nest in the tree outside our house. I was gardening, and stood up to look at what I had planted. I saw something twitch out of the corner of my eye and realised I was pretty much eye to eye with 5 teeny baby birds who were trying their hardest not to move a muscle! We watched them for a week or so until all the babies flew away. Then over the winter the rain and the wind completely demolished what was left of the nest, so we figured we wouldn't see any more robins.

But a few weeks ago, we saw a Mama Robin hanging out in the tree. Then she started building another nest - in the exact same branch where the last nest was! We've been watching her for a while now, as she built the nest, then sat on it for the last two weeks. And today -- teeny baby Robin beaks! You can see one of them in the picture below.

We've been learning lots about Robins in the process, because we're so thrilled with our front yard family! Only the female Robin builds the nest, although the male helps her by finding supplies. Then she lays anywhere from 3-4 eggs, usually one each day over the space of a few days. We couldn't see into the next clearly enough to see how many eggs she laid. Last year there were 4 babies, and we saw no old shells or dead babies out of the nest, so all the ones she laid were likely successful. That would also indicate it was probably her only clutch (group of babies) for the summer - apparently they often have 2, with the first one being 3-5 eggs, and the second being 1-2 eggs. The babies start to hatch 12-14 days after the LAST egg is laid. We think the baby beak you can see is likely the oldest (its the only one we've seen so far) and is likely a couple days old already, based on how strong and upright the little bird is.

I'll try to get more pictures tomorrow, and post some more news about our Robin family!

United we watched

2007-06-14T08:02:00.000-04:00

Alas, still no job. There have been a few openings for long-term science subs so I will apply for those, but I'm not in the sub system yet so it may be futile.

Grandpa John has been here for a week and now grandma is here too so a new rhythm has taken hold on the house. Life is good we are getting fatter and Luke is loving have more people in to play with him.

On Sunday, before my mom arrived Dad and I, along with Maria and Mario, the soon to be married couple, went to see DC United play soccer. This brought me one event closer to seeing all the major sporting events in the area. the only ones left are basketball, which I have no interest in seeing, NASCAR, which I would still love to see and extreme fighting, which would also be fun.

We bought tickets on Craigslist and got some awesome seats right on the 18 yard line. We were about 10 rows back and got to see a lot of the action and a couple of really cool goals. I have to say I like soccer but am not obsessive about it, but sitting there in person made it much cooler.

DC United won 4-2 and looked good against the best team in the league. All in all a very good outing.

Limbo Line

2007-06-07T21:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, the name of the blog has changed.

We are going to Ottawa in just about two months and I have been busily applying for jobs. This past week Ottawa schools put out their new openings and lickty split I applied for all of the science jobs.

All ZERO of them.

Yep, nada, zip, zilch, niet, all pau, no mo, da bugga stay broke.

That's right, several hundred schools and not a single science job! For that matter there wasn't a history, English, math, music or PE job either. If only I spoke french or was a special ed teacher. Lot's of jobs for them. Ugh.

So that is why this is now life in limbo.

On the bright side Costco is right up the road and being a stay at home dad is what I have always wanted to be. Or at least that is what I thought.

However, after three years of teaching I find that I really like it, even with a tough population of kids like I have now. Science is cool and getting to see the light go on, albeit dimly of late, is an awesome thing.

On a completely different subject, my technophobic brother managed to pull down some pictures of his surfing mentioned in the last post so here they are.

Anyone have a broom for the limbo dance?

My Brother is a Photo (censored)

2007-06-01T20:10:00.000-04:00

So I was talking with Scotty today, a rare thing since he is not much a of a phone talker, and he told me something cool. He's famous! Well, ok not like totally, Oh! My! Gosh! famous but pretty sorta kinda famous. He was out surfing, and he's pretty good because I taught him how to surf when he was 3, and there was a photog in the water.

The end result? Scotty boy is all over this dudes website! Now given the number of pictures of him there is a name that would have been applied to him back in my younger days. It begins with photo and ends with a not so nice word for um, err, well since this is a family show I am going to forgo an explanation. Anyways, the pictures are very cool and other than the kinda strange arm placement he is obviously ripping! Click here! to see a pic of him. I would put a pic up of him but the guy who owns the site has better security technology than I am willing to work around right now. Other than being a bit jealous of my brother ripping it up on my favorite board I am really proud of him. The picture up above I took a couple of years ago, but it shows how hard he charges.

In other news today is Grandma Lynne's last day. She flies out tomorrow morning and will definitely be missed. Luke has been so happy while she was here and the whole house just runs so smoothly.

On the flip side Grandpa John is coming in tomorrow morning to take over nanny duty. Are you ready grandpa? The job includes cooking, cleaning and dishes duty... Not to mention trying to put down our sleepless monster for naps and taking him to see Mr. Skip, a children's entertainer! Are you ready? Are we? Is Luke?
I have complete faith. He raised me after all... Is that really a solid recommendation? Well he raised my studly brother and I figure that speaks for itself!

Welcome Juliette Kezia!

2007-05-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

Big exciting news! One of my best friends had her first baby on Tuesday morning, around 8:30am. Siobian and her husband Luc (see the link to their blog, over on the right) live in Nepal where they both work for the UN. Siobian came home to Vancouver a few weeks ago, anticipating a nice relaxing last few weeks of watching Oprah and eating Ice Cream, before her July 7 due date! Well her little munchkin had other ideas.

Juliette Kezia was born on May 29, after 12 hours of later - 5.5 weeks early! She weighed 5lbs 4oz and is doing really well, although has to stay at the hospital for a few more days to get all checked out. Poor Luc missed the birth altogether, but will be in Vancouver on Saturday to meet his beautiful daughter.

Congratulations you guys! Kyle, Luke and I can't wait to meet her in person!

Saint Luke's Revenge

2007-05-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

If it only takes three miracles to become a Saint we got two before things fell apart.

Last Sunday Luke only woke up once, at 2:30am. Miracle one.

Monday he slept till 5am! Miracle two.

Then came the revenge.

We began to believe, just for a moment that after two nights of good sleeping we were about to break into the good life. All the baby sites say three days of doing something for a baby makes it a trend.

The next night he woke up 5 times and stayed up for an hour at least once! So much for a trend. Well, he is a trend setter alright, one who stays awake all night! At least we are use to it by now. I think the hardest thing about his night time wakings is that we can never be sure how many times or when he will wake up. Some nights he sleeps until midnight others only until 10 or 11. Most of the time when I go to him at night he is only up for 15 minutes. When Linds goes to him though he can be up for as long as an hour or more! I think that, more than anything else is what makes this all so hard.

In other news only 15 more days of school left. I am really starting to get a bit nostalgic about the place. I really like the people I work with and and the curriculum and will miss my team a lot. They are such a wild and crazy bunch and make much of what we do bearable. I know that I was truly lucky to end up with them, especially when there were so many new teachers at the school this year. We make a great team and know what it takes to motivate the kids. I hope that I am so lucky at my next school.

Ah well this is a kind of rambling post and I find that I am at a loss for things to talk about right now. You would think that with all that is going on I would have more to say. I am never at a loss for words otherwise. Must be the lack of sleep. Goodnight.

Teeth and Claws

2007-05-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

I know, you are wondering if I am talking about the cats or the boy.

The boy.

Now that he is walking Luke is a whole lot more fun during the day. He is able to keep himself occupied and also able to play with other people. We have loads of fun getting him to chase things around or giving him a cat toy to amuse himself and Piko at the same time.

That being said, nights are still hell. Teeth and claws is the story of the evening hours. Most of the time he goes to sleep fine. The first time. After that it is a crap shoot as to whether or not he will go back to sleep at all. Sometimes its 3 times a night sometimes its 5 that he wakes up. Those might be only for 5 minutes or they might be for and hour or longer.

Its so amazing that he can be so much fun and so active during the day and not sleep at night. How is this possible? I do half what he does each day and fall dead asleep each night. I mean learning to walk and now walking, trying out the pincer grasp and the amount of effort he puts into pooping! Whew! It is exhausting just watching the pooping.

So hopefully he starts sleeping better. In the mean time though, grandma Lynne is here and making his days great and as an added bonus the cats are getting fat. School is winding down and my students (yes that means all of you who read this blog, Sven, Vacuum boy, Hank, et al) have a lot more work to do than they think. Fortunately they are, for the most part, good kids and do good work.

We are also faced with the monumental task of downsizing three years of our lives in preparation for our return to Ottawa. Do we keep the Murano or sell it? Do we take all the couches our sell them? Should the kitchen faucet come or do we just buy a new one? How in the heck are we going to get the new place painted and the appliances installed before we move in? How many times is Oli going to vent from both ends on the trip up?

Such decisions, and yet all I can really think about is how Luke is going to sleep tonight. Someday he will sleep. This is our mantra.

A Celebration

2007-04-22T03:33:00.000-04:00

And so the family gathered in a celebration. I really mean that, it was a celebration of life, not a mourning of a passing. Joy of a life that was good and worthwhile. One that made a difference and caused a group of people to be brought together. In this case a family. Our matriarch had passed and all of us were in turmoil. The thing that binds us is our love for each other and our commitment to family.

The Margenau clan. That's what we are. The thing that sticks out to me most of this weekend is spending time with family. Mainly my dad and brother, around the fire at aunt Mary and Uncle Jack's. We sat and discussed all things. From family to being to parenting to growing up. It has been one of the most moving and meaningful times in my life with my father and brother. As men, and I am not attaching any kind of stereotypical association to that word, we talked about what was important in our lives. About our loves, our lives and the importance of many of the things we do. We talked about God, our role as good Christians, or at least good spiritual people, and what it meant to do these things and be good people. I think that is one of the most fundamentally important lessons I have learned from my dad: what it means to be a good person and lead a good and upstanding life.

It was over a week ago that I wrote this. After a very long night spent sitting around a fire. I thought I would want to write more but feel that I did justice to my thoughts and feelings at the time. So I will leave it at that.

Three Generations

2007-04-16T20:47:00.000-04:00

Sadly for the Brass', the Beatties, the Miller's and now the Margenau's, all of the family lines represented in Luke, there are only three generations left alive.

This past weekend Grandma Roni Margenau passed away. She was the last of the grandparents still living and was finally able to join Grandpa.

For me the really sad thing is that I was going out to see her this coming weekend to bring her new pictures of Luke and to get to say my goodbyes since we all knew her time was drawing near.

The last time I got to see her was at my cousins wedding in Sedona in 2005. I knew I might not get to see her again and was happy she got to meet Lindsay. It was a very happy occasion and almost all of my cousins and aunts and uncles were there.

What will I remember about her? I remember swimming in her pool in Phoenix with my dad, the orange trees in the backyard that we would make fresh orange juice from. I remember her fresh bread and strawberry jam, so full of sugar it made a crust around the top of the jar. As I got older I was allowed to play Sheep's Head, the family card game with her and I always lost because she was very good. When we moved to Hawaii I stayed with her and grandpa while my parent's went to see if they liked Hawaii enough. I remember her and grandpa pulling up to a family reunion in Wisconsin in their big old white car. She made great German Potato salad.

Grandma Roni was loving and caring to all us grand kids. There was always something to be had in the kitchen and I don't think I will ever forget the smells of the kitchen or the feel of the lino in it.

My aunt Kathy, my dad's sister, had been compiling stories of grandma's life before she died and I wanted to include a few of them here. To provide a glimpse into a life that began in July of 1919.

From Veronica Mary Scherhaufer Margenau's memories -

Speaking about her own grandfather when she was just 3 years old "When bored we'd go upstairs to pester Grandpa. To get rid of us he'd give us each a penny. He'd say in German, "now, go to the store and don't hurry back!". Dickman's store was about two blocks in the opposite direction as Leona's home. We bought candy with our money. We could get five licorice sticks for a penny!"

Speaking about her grandmother at age 8, "Grandma was very dear to us. If you wanted something you went to "Grandma". She would override mother's decisions." All grandma's are the same!

After living on a farm, not for the first time, and moving back to Clevland, Wisconsin in the eighth grade, "We couldn't afford the twenty-five cents a day that the bus charged to go to the nearest high school which was fifteen miles away in Sheboygan. Having no other means of getting there I couldn't attend. Our priest wanted me to go to the convent to get my education. He thought I could quit the convent after I graduated. He said that that this was the only way. My strong sense of right and wrong just wouldn't let me do this. I felt that this plan was wrong, to get my education and then quit the convent. So I went to work and I've been earning my own way ever since. Buying my ownclothes"

Finally, on meeting grandpa for the first time. "And then I met BOB. The date was February 17, 1938. I was at Turner Hall with my girlfriend, Marie Stauber, and her boyfriend, Louis Broumbauer. Louis was Bob's friend.When I saw Bob I asked Marie who he was and she replied,"That's Bob Margenau. Everybody knows him!". I replied that "I" didn't. and Marie said, "You do now." Marie introduced us and for me it was "love at first sight". Bob asked me for a dance and of course it was a nice waltz called The Beautiful Lady In Blue. I was wearing a blue dress. It had a lace coat over a satin slip sheath. Later, Bob asked if I wanted to go out for a "chicken lunch" (chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetable and maybe a crab apple) after the dance. I, of course, said "yes". I had come to the dance with Ewald and Marcie. Ewald did not want me to go with Bob since he brought me and he didn't want to get in trouble with mother for not bringing me home. Well, I had promised Bob to go with him and a girl's gotta keep her promises so I went with Bob for the chicken lunch. Besides, I was starving after all the dancing. We went to a tavern owned by Willie Zelko. WIllie's mother made the chicken lunches. It was a neighborhood tavern."

What a full and complete life. There is so much more in the biography. I haven't had time to read it all. May we all be so blessed in our lives. to affect so many people in so many positive ways.

She was loved by all her family and will be sorely missed.

Sun, sand and sunburns

2007-04-05T17:42:00.000-04:00

Ah, K-Town.

After our Texas ordeal we arrived safely in Hawaii to a beautiful night. Should have been a beautiful afternoon but well, such are the vagaries of flying.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny with a good potential for blazing heat. We immediately headed out to the beach and as a major sacrifice for me, not to Sandy's. I must be growing up or something. So off to the beach we went with soon to be Godfather Kevin.

As we had hoped Luke took to the water straight off. Screaming out his raptor noises we trundled down to the water and he got his first taste of ocean water. He seemed to like it and kept sucking it off my shoulder.

We spent the afternoon in town with Linds family and then came back to the sane side of the island for dinner.

Sunday was the baptism and it went very well. The party afterwards was great, even though it rained for a while. It helped to cool it off.

Since then it has a progression of food beaches and family. Loads of fun and lots of sun. I am working on a good sunburn and should be nice and dark when I get back to "The Center of the Universe."

Luke got a chance to eat a lot of sand and he loves it! A little rough on the exit but he doesn't seem to be suffering.

It makes me very happy that Luke is so into the beach.

I also got a chance to hang out with Gabe and Scott. Gabe and I went to Sandy's and got a few nice waves. We took some video but can't upload it here in Hawaii. So look for them when we return. There are a few gems of tourists getting munched by the shore break.

Yesterday Scotty and I finally got a chance to take the boat out.

We headed out to do a bit of fishing. It was absolutely beautiful. Calm, light winds and good company. We blasted out to the buoy, about 15 miles offshore, and started jigging. This involved dropping a line about 500 feet down and then jerking it up and reeling in at the same time. Very work intensive but it it yielded great results.

On my first drop I snagged a fish and fought it all the way up. Fortunately the fish were biting at about 100 feet so it wasn't that far to fight.

My fish was the biggest of the day but Scott proceeded to pull in six more small ones to to prove that he is the better fisherman. I was just happy to catch one. It was a great time and we got home in time for dinner.

Occasional Rest

2007-03-24T14:07:00.000-04:00

As I sit here typing our little man is standing at the ottoman playing on the piano with his auntie Heather. It's amazing how much he has changed in the last few weeks.

When last I wrote we had started sleep training and thought we were doing pretty well. I should have known better. One day he sleeps for 9 hours and doesn't wake up at all until 5 am and the next night he is up 3 times. The norm, right now, one to two wakings a night. Mostly these are for about 10-15 minutes sometimes I get lucky and they are only for 5 minutes or less. These are amazing! I actually got up the other night and by the time I got into his room he was back asleep and stayed that way for a good while!

For me, the hardest part is not knowing what each waking is going to be like. Most often when I leave he looks like this (click here for video, or on the picture below).

Amazingly I shot this video so long ago that he sleeps on his side now and facing the other direction! Wow how things change. I think I should change the title of this post to changing times or something like that.

Anyway, in other news we are starting to prepare for the trip to Hawaii. Yes, for those of you who we don't talk to all that much, which is most of you since we are bad friends, are going to be Hawaii from Friday, March 30 until Sunday, April 8. We are taking Luke to see Grams and Gramps and get him consigned to God (baptized). We are all looking forward to it although my mom was a bit shocked when she found out how crunchy(organic/earthy firthy) we have become. Cloth diapers, homemade baby food, no refined sugars, only boob juice and water. Yes, despite our SUV and consumeristic American ways we are on the organic baby bandwagon! And just for anyone who is wondering, yes, we will be at the Shack on Thursday night!

I preparation for Hawaii Luke and I have been going to swim lessons at the local pool. I think he will be ready for Sandy's soon. I mean look at him he is a fish!

I also think he has pretty good form for a body surfer!

So as we prepare for another night I am left wondering what is in store for me tonight. I am still doing almost all the wakings, Linds takes any after 4:30am, and I also put him to sleep. I can't even imagine what it will be like in Hawaii when he is six hours ahead and going to sleep at 1pm...

I'll keep you posted.

In the dog house

2007-03-08T19:47:00.000-05:00

For the first time in almost three years of marriage I find myself in the dog house.

By the dog house I mean Luke's room and I am there of my own, or at least the doctor's at Children's, choice. Sleep training the baby. For the last week I have been doing all the wakings with the sprout, except those involving the food.

Neither of us were too sure what to expect, the last few days/weeks/months had been really tough. Luke, as many of you know has not been a good sleeper. On the really bad nights he was up as many as 9 times.

So the choice/decision was made and I began sleeping on the futon all night. Linds loved it as she got the whole bed to herself, and really, I am a better sleeper than she is so it made a sick kind of sense. When Linds gets up with Luke she is up for a long time afterwards. Me I get up, I fall back asleep. Good napping genes I guess.

The first night was tough, Luke nursed to sleep and finally went down at around 8:30. He then woke up at 10 and nursed again. This time it was straight back to sleep and he slept till 12:30! One of his longer sleeps. Nursed again, slept till 2:30 I put him back to sleep and he slept till 5:30. Not bad.

The next 2 nights were much the same with maybe a small gain in time asleep verses awake. Then on Tuesday night we had a rough one. Linds spent an hour, with me asleep in the floor oblivious, putting him back to sleep at 1:30. Then from 4:00am he was up for 3 hours until she finally gave up and got him up for the day. We questioned the whole idea but decided that we would implement the doctors strategy of eliminating night time feedings.

Wednesday night Luke got a big bowl of oatmeal for dinner, had a big stinky, solid poop and then went to bed. He woke up an hour later at 8pm. Damn. We thought we were done for, but it turned out he just wasn't comfortable. He rolled over and slept till 10:30. Rolled over again and slept till 1:30! Rolled over and slept till 6!!! Holy smokes!

Throughout it all he didn't suck to sleep on the pacifier, didn't eat and didn't really fuss at all! So, fingers crossed it will continue tonight. Being as it is 9:30 I should get myself off to the dog house. The floor is calling me.

What? Another blog?

2007-03-02T18:54:00.000-05:00

Yep, another one. I am bored of only writing this blog so I made up a new one for things that don't pertain to our lives. Mainly it is aimed at my growing (confusion? disbelief? amusement?) with commercials. I will also use it to post about other bizarre things I think of that don't fit on the main blog.

We'll see.

Now you can too.

Welcome to the Commercial Interlude!

High on pots

2007-02-24T20:13:00.000-05:00

Confucius say, "Man who stand on toilet is high on pot!"

So we're not getting flooded out or anything but we are pretty stoked on our pots.

Finally, after much OCDlike searching on my part and one returned set of cookware we have a nice new set of stainless steel pots. For Christmas we got a couple of gift cards to Crate and Barrel and thought to use them for new cookware. Our original set was definitely worn and the non-stick coating wasn't so non-sticky anymore. A little sad since we have had that set since we moved to Vancouver 5 years ago! Wow, has it been that long.

Just a short aside, earlier this week, the 23rd to be exact, we celebrated our 7th year of knowing each other. Next week will be our 7 years of dating anniversary. Linds didn't wait long before she pounced.

Anyways, back to the main story. So our pots were old an worn out and we needed a new set. After looking on the Crate and Barrel website we settled on a set and drove out to get it. We were very happy, an Infinite Circulon set with nice thick bottoms and a non-stick coating. Dishwasher safe and pretty. Unfortunately the handles got so hot we couldn't pick them up! Back to the store they went and back to researching I went.

I originally looked at All Clad and Calphlon but they were really expensive even on Ebay. Then I remembered His Eminence the Grandfather (Jim) talking about his Paderno set. Paderno is a good old Canadian company from PEI (Prince Edward Island). Paderno, which I had never heard of before Grandpa told me about it, is also the company that makes the cookware for Air Force One. Yes, heaven forbid, the Canadians have even taken over our White House in the sky!

Of course though, no one sells Paderno here, but hoho! someone was selling a set on Ebay. So after determining that they were the real deal and not fakes I put a bid in and 4 days later won a Paderno Prime Minister set of cookware. These are the mack daddy set, 900 bucks brand new and I got them for $350, brand new! They are also dishwasher safe which is a real plus since most of the other high end sets are not.
So they arrived on Friday and we have not really cooked with them but they sure do look nice on the pot rack. A great side benefit is that Luke loves to sit on the counter and stare up at them. This morning I gave him the steamer to drum on and gum up! He loved it.

They did make a spectacular omelet for breakfast this morning. Here is the evidence.

Our rank in the blogging world

2007-02-19T10:10:00.000-05:00

So this morning I was reading an article in the New Zealand Herald (the best newspaper around) and ran across this story about a guy who is making money on his blog. Now I have no interest in making money on the blog but the guy was listed as having the 51st most popular blog in the world! So the point of this story? I wanted to find out where our humble blogs rank.

It turns out that our blog is ranked 1,749,839 of all the blogs out there. Does that mean anything? No probably not but what the hey, it was sorta fun to find out. I did learn that one of my students is referencing me in his blog. Nothing bad, just mentioned that his locker is outside my room.

Try it out, check out your blogs rank at Technorati

The "Blizzard" of '07

2007-02-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

I am beginning to get bored with being off from school. Two days was fine, 6 is a bit excessive.

If you have been watching the news lately you know that it has been a wild time here on the east coast. The big snow finally arrived on Tuesday and that is when the world ended. I am surprised that people aren't hording TP and milk yet.

Seriously though, we must have gotten a whole 3 inches of snow! It was terrifying! Ok, so there was actually a bit of nastiness in the whole deal in the form of a good layer of ice, but if they had bothered to snow plow things on Wednesday like we did for the driveway everyone would be fine. Our drive way is the only one in the whole joint that is totally clear. I shoveled, the ice melted, end of story. The rest of the people let it sit all day, so it started to melt, then it dropped to 15 F over night and it froze solid. Now everyone has skating rinks.

They called Wednesday off at 4:30 in the morning. Not a biggy for me since I was already off to finish my recommendations, I had about 20 of 35 left to do. They called Thursday at 4 in the afternoon and Friday at 4pm on Thursday. It really just blows my mind.

Because there aren't enough snow plows, the back roads don't get cleared and the result is no school. Now we have to make up a day in March which means I have to take a sub day since we had bought plane tickets to Hawaii already. That is a bit frustrating. Oh well, I owe the county 18 hours already, what's a few more.

The forecast for Saturday night? Snow. Maybe this place will get dug out by June. As it is right now we have a pile of snow 2 feet deep in the front yard.

I will take a pic tomorrow and put it in here.

Home sweet Ottawa?

2007-02-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

As we drove back into Alexandria from Dulles airport on Sunday Linds commented how weird it was that we had just left Ottawa, our home base, and returned to Washington, DC, our home. Neither of us ever thought either of those places would be our home.

This past weekend was a busy one. We have bought a house in Ottawa, well right now it isn't even a hole in the ground, but it will be a home by August 2.

We had spent quite a bit of time debating what and where to buy and when we were in Ottawa last May we looked around at some places and picked out neighborhoods we liked. We settled on the Alta Vista area and found a brand new townhouse complex going in. The really cool thing about it is that we are buying a brand new place that is in the city in an existing neighborhood. It is prime time real estate, right next to the hospital and with some nice little parks and good walking all around.

When we arrived on Friday it was snowing and a little bit below freezing. Nice weather for Ottawa. We spent the rest of the day at the cabinet shop, the flooring place, the mortgage office and various small shops and stores looking at stuff for the house. Through this all Luke was fighting off a cold but was an angel most of the time, just sleeping away warm in his car seat.

Saturday we had breakfast with Rodney and Tonya and Asha in Quebec. It was really nice to see them and it reminds us that we have good friends who will be living there when we move back. Then it was off to the new place. We spent 5 hours in the sales office with Reva, the sales lady. It was hectic, stressful and exhausting to pick tile that matched counters that matched cabinets that matched back splash that matched hardwood that matched tile that matched... oh.. we matched those already? Lets check just to make sure we like it.... And on and on. Really we did quite well and still liked each other at the end of it.

Once again our sweet baby slept through most of it. We thought we had done quite well at picking fun and different colors until it got to writing things down and the base color for all the tiles was beige. At least it matches the carpet!

All in all it was an exhausting time but we did good. We made it home in time for the Super Bowl, which I count a success.

Ottawa, eh? Home, eh? Who would have thunk it?

Giant Kilts

2007-01-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

As we sat in our seats, just like everyone else, I commented to Linds that the difference between a Rod Stewart concert and a U2 concert is that at U2 there aren't seats because no one will sit, while at Rod Stewart everyone has seats because most people can't stand!

Actually that's not quite true. We expected to be on the younger end of the crowd last night but we were more like the middle. The girls, yes girls not ladies, sitting next to us were way more into it than either of us. Shouting how much they loved Rod and all that.

For Christmas I got Linds tickets to the concert. She always comments how it reminds her of her family. That it is the music she grew up listening to and makes her happy. I figured it was a good way to get some "US" time away from our little bundle of screaming joy.

Janice and CJ from the embassy were suckered into agreeing to babysit, fortunately all went well. Luke was asleep when we left and only woke up once to eat.

The concert was a blast, Linds sang along with all the songs and seemed surprised that I knew quite a few of them too. Rod put on a good show, lots of action and movement. The stage was set up in the center of the arena and the band, the Rodettes and Rod himself moved around so that everyone got a good show.

The concert finished with Maggie May, which was awesome. All in all a nice date with a cute girl.

As for the title of this post? Well, since the stage was in the middle of the arena the curtain went all the way around it. It was plaid and whether intentional or not, looked just like a giant kilt!

Return of the King

2007-01-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

After a hard season of campaigning the tired warriors approached their final battle. The forces of evil had amassed their most fearsome brood. Vicious raptors all of them set to struggle against our gigantic hero's.

"But where is our king?" they shouted

"Who will lead us?"

When out of the sticks in the West (South?) rode their king on(in) his white stallion.

To the resounding cheers of the peasants and peons their leader returned for this final battle.

What force could bring him from the stix with such haste? Who could convince him the need was so great? What foul deeds... Alright you get the point.

IT"S THE PLAYOFFS BABY!!!

The Dutton returns!
From on high we surveyed the battle. So high in fact there were only 4 rows behind us in the stadium. We were sure they would sell oxygen rather than beer! And kings we felt like after the ransom we paid for the tickets!

Ah well, its the playoffs and Tiki Barbers last game. Quite a game too with the biggest American flag I have ever seen!
Also by far the most bruising display of running by Shockey who lowered his head and charged on after having his helmet ripped off mid play! Now that was football!

So yes, the Dutton came avisiting and good times were had by all. We had dinner with the old crew from Sandburg on Saturday and the Shane and I drove up to Philly to tailgate before the game. The weather on the way up and as we sat in the parking lot was great. Brats and beer and chips and dip! Real food.

The only lame part was the drive home. Pissing down with rain and many stupid brake riding drivers.

A good time was had by all and for the last football game I am likely to see live for a while it was a great time. In the end after defeat the King returned for one last trip to his former domain known as Sandburg. There he was beset upon by the masses (groupies) of former subjects (students) who pleaded with him for a return of his glory to their presence. Then with a wave and a tear (to thank God they hadn't strapped him to a substitute desk) he mounted back upon his fierce steed and rolled off into the dawn.

We understand he was greeted with loud cheers upon his arrival back in the stixs.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T22:02:00.001-05:00

As 2007 dawned Kyle and I found ourselves fighting with a 17-pound bundle of screaming baby, trying to get some sleep in before our 5am wake-up call. Our flight left Victoria at 7am, and with a baby who only sleeps for 45 minutes at a stretch, we fought the urge to welcome in 2007 and went to sleep at a reasonable hour, because we knew we'd be up many times before the clock struck midnight anyways. As it turns out, I was awake, nursing Luke as 11:59 became 12:00 and I whispered "Happy New Year baby boy". I can remember last New Years Eve, standing in Old Town Alexandria with Kyle and our friend Jerry, watching the fireworks. Newly pregnant - only 5 weeks along, I remember putting my hands on my not-yet-growing belly and saying "Happy New Year baby", wondering what the year would bring. Turns out, despite the sleep deprivation, it was pretty good!

Ok just because everyone else is doing this, I had to go and find out how many countries I have visited! It makes me realize there are some areas I really have to get to - Central & South America, the Middle East, and most of Africa. I sure hope Luke's up for travelling, because we've got a lot to accomplish in coming years!

Luke 2:1-20

2006-12-25T10:57:00.000-05:00

As I sit here typing our little Christmas present is talking happily away to himself in the bouncing chair. It is funny but I never thought about his name and its significance to when we found out we were pregnant. Last night in church with Luke there on Linds lap I listened to the readings and it dawned on me that the gospel on Christmas eve is Luke 2:1-20. The story of the birth of Jesus. A year ago today we found out the bun was in the oven and the temperature set to bake. We called him our little Christmas present, or our best Christmas present and he has been.

God works in mysterious ways. I personally find it amazing that he ended up named Luke in the end. Of course since our little angel has been up since 6 am with me I may just be a bit sleep deprived, but I don't think so. Things happen for a reason.

As a side note check out my parents Christmas present.

Onwards to Christmas morning. The babe is hungry and I am on bottle duty. A nice bonus present for Linds this morning is an extra 2 hours of sleep.

Mele Kalikimaka!

A year ago

2006-12-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

We had no idea a year ago today how much our life would change a year ago tomorrow. On Christmas eve we had a negative pregnancy test and on Christmas morning a positive one.

A year ago we were a family of two, now a family of three. To me, it was the most magical gift to receive on Christmas. Knowing that our life was going to change forever in just a few short months. And change it has. We spent our first night away from Luke last night. We went out to a spa and left him with Linds' mom, aunt and sister. They did a tag team event with Heather pulling the night shift and Linds' mom the morning shift. Fortunately, Luke was an angel, much to our relief after his meltdown on her birthday. It was Linds first almost continuous nights sleep in over 100 days. Can he really be that old? She only had to get up to pump twice. We had a nice dinner out and a relaxing morning at the hotel before we came home.

It is cold and rainy and windy today but the cold has finally made it feel like Christmas, at least to me. Grandma and Auntie Jane are busily preparing a big Christmas ham for dinner tonight and tomorrow Luke will celebrate his first Christmas.

May all of you have a wonderful and beautiful Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noel

Mele Kalikimaka

Surprise!! You're 30!!

2006-12-17T18:44:00.000-05:00

Its safe to say Linds was surprised.

Stunned, bowled over, flabbergasted, maybe even a bit pissed. She really doesn't like surprises but appreciated the effort. She just might have appreciated it more if she hadn't been leaving at 5:45 the next morning. Oh well, It was a good time.

The story begins with Jerry and I driving back from Punkin Chunkin. We hatched a plan to surprise Linds when she turned 30. Maria and Mario were enrolled as the babysitters and party favor bringers. I think next time they might prefer to just bring the party favors.

To say Luke has become a mamas boy might be a bit of an understatement. He squalls when I get him most of the time so we shouldn't have been surprised that it was a rough night.

For better or worse Linds and I had a great time at dinner. We went to the Chart House, our dinner was excellent and fortunately a bit slow in coming. The key to the whole night was us being out and everyone else arriving. I had gotten a hold of Christine, a former co-worker of Linds, to figure out the embassy list and she was also the picture taker last night. By the time we got home everyone was there and waiting.

So with the help of Christine, Jerry and the M&M's (yes I have given you two a code name) we pulled off a great surprise. Luke finally went to sleep and the cake from Coldstone was a hit!

Through it all my beautiful wife was the center of attention. She looks at least as cute as she did when we met almost seven years ago. Who would have thought we could accomplish so much before we were 30?

Happy Birthday Linds!

The Godfather

2006-12-15T18:56:00.000-05:00

When Luke was born we decided he was going to be baptized. That left us with only one choice for godfather, Kevin. He has been an important figure in my life since I was 13, helping me to shape my faith and grow up to be a good man.

Usually we see Kevin every couple of months but since Luke was born he has been unable to get a flight up here with a decent layover. Finally, He conceded that the closest he could get was Baltimore. He was to be there for 30 hours so we hopped in the car last Sunday and took Luke up to meet his soon to be godfather.

Kevin played the part well with a big long black trench coat. Fortunately Luke wasn't fooled he had a great time hanging out with Uncle Kevin. We spent time in the Baltimore aquarium and the Cheesecake Factory. Since we had never been to Baltimore it was a nice trip for us and a chance to see the city on a nice day.

Hopefully we get to see Kevin again before April.

Our Christmas spirit is multiplying!

2006-12-03T19:13:00.000-05:00

Done! For now...

I think I must have spent about 5 hours putting up lights today. When added to yesterday that is almost a full days work. Well, if you have a government job. The really nice thing is that our Christmas spirit is finally rubbing off on the neighborhood! Philip and Johanna caved in to my pressure and bought lights and let me put them up.

With the windows done yesterday all I had to do today was put up the lights on the 4th floor. I decided to switch it up this year and rather than go around just the 4th floor window I went around the perimeter of the roof. As I was finishing up Johanna came home and met me at her 4th floor window where I started on her house. It was much harder to do her window because the roof on their bump out isn't flat. I kept feeling like I was going to fall off the roof! It's amazing how even with a rope I still feel like I am going to fall periodically.

Another new thing this year was competition. What? In this militaristic HOA neighborhood? You betcha! Some new people moved in at the other end of the development and decided to throw down the gauntlet. Their displays are bigger, on the ground but no one gets as far up the house as we do! SNAP!

There were also some new entries by holiday regulars. This one below was the best of the tasteful displays. I chose not to take any pictures of the house covered in blue lights, with a yellow tree in the window. Its just not right.

Overall I am pleased with the lights this year. I have one big long strand of LED lights left that I think are going around the back of the house but otherwise our last Christmas light display in DC is complete!

Sunter? Wimmer?

2006-12-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

What is it? Winter or summer? Can't decide? Move to DC!

Today, December 1, it was 76 F! Tomorrow morning it is supposed to be in the low 30's. I really wish it could decide to be in the north or the south. We can't be both! The nice thing is that at least we missed out on all the weather that beat up the west coast and midwest this week. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and around 50 F by early afternoon. That means just one thing...

Christmas lights setup day! Linds is attempting to moderate the number of lights that we put up but I have faith that this is one argument I have a good chance of winning.

Check back tomorrow or Sunday for pics.

Kyle

Separation Anxiety

2006-11-27T19:35:00.000-05:00

I think this is what we expected when we left.

It was to be our first trip out of the house without Luke. Linds was definitely not ready for it. For me it was not such a big thing, after all I am gone for 10 hours every day.

Last week was a rough week for Linds. The baby was just inconsolable for long stretches of the day and she was beginning to feel the stress. I tried to help out as much as possible but there is only so much I can do without nearly bottomless momaries to suckle.

On Wednesday I was at school talking with Maria about our rough week and out of the blue she offered to babysit on Sunday. This was a huge offer because I knew she was going to be doing a nine hour drive back here from Connecticut with her fiance Mario. She was insistent so I told her we would take her up if she still felt like it on Sunday.

Well, she called and said she was still up for it, so at 4pm the two of them showed up at our house. Coincidentally it was the perfect time for these two New Englanders to catch the start of the Patriots football game on the big TV. Coincidence? I think not! That's just fine though since Luke loves football.

After explaining the job and showing Maria how to put a cloth diaper on Luke (Mario was now glued to the football) we handed her a bottle and were on our way. There were many backward glances by Linds and some mini tears, threats to phone every 20 minutes and just a wee bit of mothers angst.

We were off to the movies. The Santa Clause 3. It was exactly what we expected it to be, fun, silly and easy to watch. The only twist was the running joke throughout the movie that Santa (Tim Allen) lived in Canada and that all Canadians were short (elves). There were lots of Eh!'s and a few other bad (good) Canadian jokes.

Most importantly Linds made it through the whole movie without calling home. When we got home with pizza for dinner we were happy to find this.

Maria, Mario, you're hired. Next week same time?

The Center of the Universe

2006-11-10T09:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know that Washington, DC isn't the center of the universe but sometimes it really feels like it. Unless you have been living under a rock you probably knew there was an election in the US this week. For a few days it seemed like the only news anywhere was on the election.

The cool thing was, that Virginia became the final decider on whether the Democrats took over the Senate or not. So maybe DC wasn't the center of the world, but Alexandria was. It was here in our little town George Allen the Republican incumbent conceded the race. I know that we are the center of the world because the New Zealand Herald (my newspaper of choice) was where I first found out that the Dem's had won. It seemed like no matter what news site I visited the election was being covered. The nightly news even went so far as to show broadcasts from other countries. I now understand why Americans think they are the center of the universe. Its just too bad we are the dim center so often.

All in all, I have to say that the time we have spent here has been a very interesting experience. Every night we are on the news and all these 'famous' people come and go through our little section of the world. One nice thing, even great thing, about the election being over is that we have a solid 6 months before the political adds start back up for the presidential race in '08.

Punkin Chunkin

2006-11-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

Subtitle - Redneck Adventures part 3

With Shane now living in Kentucky I had to enlist the aid of my buddy Jerry in my latest Redneck Adventure. Jerry's family were the first people we met when we moved to Hawaii 20 some odd years ago and strangely he now lives in DC as do his folks. Its great because he is always up for something new and enjoys going out to have "cultural experiences" as we call them.
So Punkin Chunkin. Yes that is the way it is spelled. Since 1986, as I understand it, a group of people has been getting together in Millsboro Delaware to see who can propel a pumpkin the farthest. Not by hand but through mechanical means! Enter the World Punkin Chunkin Championship with more than 50 competitors and literally thousands of spectators.
At 7am sharp on a Saturday morning I picked up Jerry and off we went. Our 100 mile one way trip was begun. There was however, one casualty on this trip. My roughly 4 year stretch of not eating in McD's came to an end. We had egg McMuffins somewhere in podunk Delaware, and I have to say, they were really good. Eating McD for breakfast should have been a clue as to our eating habits for the day.
The entire way out I think Jerry was a bit skeptical of the whole thing. He kinda figured it was a couple of guys with slingshots throw pumpkins and drinking beer. When we pulled up outside the gate and waited in traffic to enter he began to believe. There were actually five entry lines into the chunk. When we parked, amongst the 1000 plus other large trucks and SUVs we looked out upon a sea of confederate flags and Pabst Blue Ribbon boxes and knew we were truly in for a cultural experience. This was going to be a little (big?) slice of blue collar southern America.

I think it was everything we expected and more.
We had arrived as the Air Cannon division was underway. About every ten minutes a countdown would be made and an 8 - 10 pound pumpkin would be shot out of the massive barrel of an air cannon. The longest distance we heard called out was in excess of 3800 feet! That's almost 3/4 of a mile or more than a kilometer! Holy flying orange stuff Batman!
We roamed around for an hour watching these go, one landed in the parking lot we think, and then started to get hungry. We decided upon pulled pork sandwiches and our caloric intake was now around 3000 for the day.
Eventually we got tired of walking and stopped to just watch the action. As luck would have it there was a Bobcat parked nearby and no one seemed to mind if we stood on its treads. This eventually morphed into sitting on the cab. I don't think two fellas have ever had a more brilliant idea. Not only did we have an unobstructed view of the competition but also of the crowd! Holy cow! When we arrived at 10am people were already well and truly drunk. By 1 it was turning into a drunken mess. People from all walks of life were there and they all walked by below us. I wish I had been quicker with the camera because some of the outfits were priceless. The temperature was about 40F (4C) all day and yet there were people in shorts and my favorite the rather large male contestant in a pair of farm overalls and no shirt with his grey beard hanging all the way to his belt.
They were not selling alcohol but most people had brought an entire liquor store with them. So spirits were high.

At 1pm the catapult/trebuchet division began. This was what I really wanted to see since I had built a small trebuchet last year. The largest was over 50 feet tall and had steel wheels more than 10 feet tall! It threw a pumpkin over 1000 feet! Awesome! From our vantage point on the bobcat the competition move right past us and down the line. We were fortunate enough to have front row seats for the two most exciting events of the day.
A fairly large trebuchet misfired right in front of us and shot its pumpkin out behind it at over 100 mph and it landed about 500 feet behind us in the parking lot. We don't know if it hit a car but if it did someone was going to be really sad.

The second event was the very next trebuchet built in the Falling Arm Trebuchet style, which give them a lot more power, also misfired. This time the pumpkin went straight up and landed next to the machine. Very fun.
After that the action moved down the line and Jerry and I sat upon our high seat and watched for another hour. To finish off the eating we grabbed some crabcake sandwiches on the way out. Calorie count 5000.

Dirty, dusty and cold we hopped back in the car and drove back to civilization, feeling enriched and educated and maybe a little bit more in touch with the American way!

Luke-O-Lantern

2006-10-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

In keeping with our tradition of having a pumpkin carving party for Halloween we invited Team 6 (the other teachers on my team, representing English, Civics and Math) and their spouses to the 6th annual Pumpkin Party.

One of the funnier things was the fact that we had never met any of the other spouses/significant others. Collectively we had taken to referring to them as the Phantom husband/boyfriend/fiance. Well, almost all the ghosts made it out. Jeremy, the math teacher had to ship his fiance back to prison (Ohio) so she is still a phantom.
By the way, the title for this post was coined by Jackie's daughter Taylor when I told her I thought my Jack-o-lantern was going to eat Luke. In the end he was just more baby than the pumpkin could swallow but it tried...

Overall the night was a big hit. Linds made lasagna and caeser salad and pumpkin pie. We also made pumpkin hummus from a Cooking Light that was really good. To top it off we had pumpkin beer.

On Halloween we had a lot of trick-or-treaters. At least 3 or 4 times as many as we have had in the past. As usual the pumpkins were a big hit and the neighbors all commented that they now looked forward to our Christmas lights display. I said that was still in planning but that they could expect something fun and Home Improvementish!

Colonial Disneyland

2006-10-26T21:25:00.000-04:00

With just one week left on my paternity leave we decided we should take a road trip to see how our budding young Jedi travels. Pretty well, for now. We only had to stop once in 3 hours of driving to feed it, er him. So where do you go on a road trip when you live in the center of the universe? Why Disneyland of course! Ok, so anyone with a little bit of geographic knowledge knows that the happiest place on earth is a bit over 3 hours away. Instead we went to Colonial Williamsburg, which is really just a Colonial Disneyland.

First off, it is horrendously overpriced. About $50, more if you want to visit all the "attractions", to walk through a historical "living museum" and watch the "shows".

Secondly, the "attractions" we saw, didn't look like they were worth the money.

Finally, most of the fun stuff is outside and free! Why would you pay all that money when you can watch it for free??!!!

All that being said it was neat to see the area and the second day had much more fun in store. On Tuesday we went to the second leg of the Historic Triangle, Jamestown. So much cooler (colder even) and so much more worth the $20, yes it was cheaper.
Jamestown is the sight of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Quebec City is french and a year younger, but is still occupied. Jamestown hasn't had anyone live in it for a good long while, but well, its all up for debate anyway right?
Anyway, Jamestown has both a National Park and a "living museum" and both are neat. The national park is home to the archaeological site and remnants of the original settlement. It was cold as hell so I don't think we got out of it all that we could, but it was still neat.
The museum is really well done. There are tons of people working in it in period costume and they tell you all about what they do. The coolest thing is, they really are doing it! The blacksmith was making nails that the guys building the church were going to use! And they were building the church by hand, no power tools.
Next year is the 400th anniversary of Jamestown so they are gearing up for a big party. The new museum has just opened and while it is in the form of a traditional, walk through, museum it is very well done and has lots of neat displays.
We did not make it to Yorktown so maybe we will make another trip. My vote, spend a full day in Jamestown and skill Colonial Disneyland, it is definitely not the happiest place on earth.

The Margenau's Part 2

2006-10-22T09:01:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know, it has been a while since I last updated. Amazingly there is not a lot of spare time in my day anymore.

I wanted to put up a couple more pictures from when my family was here. It was a pretty busy week. We were out and about almost every day with at least a walk to Starbucks with the baby.

Really what my family wanted to do was just hang out with Luke. So there was lots of baby holding time, which was great for Linds and I because it gave our arms a rest.

We had two other big adventures while my family was here. The first was an awesome hike up Old Rag, my favorite hike in the area. It is about an hour and a half drive from our house but it is through some really neet countryside. The hike itself is pretty tough and includes a good section of class 4 scramble. Mom wasn't a big fan of that but she made it through and admitted that the view and the experience was worth it.

The second trip was out to the Udvay-Hazy Annex of the Air and Space Museum. I had never been out to see this museum and it is really worth it! Huge old hanger just filled with airplanes. All of them are restored or in the process of being restored. The Enola Gay is there as well as a Concorde and a space shuttle.

It was a great week with my family and we are always hoping more family will come visit.

Johnnie Walker and the Margenau Clan

2006-10-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

I think if we had known how many people would come to visit us once we had a baby we would have started sooner!

This past week Grandpa and Grandma Margenau along with Uncle Scotty came out to see the new arrival. It was a lot of fun because it's not often that I get to see my family 2 times in a year anymore. If only there was a consulate in Hawaii...

As we are learning any time there is an extra set of hands around life in the expanded Margenau house is much easier. My mom spent most of her time cooking or holding Luke, which means we now have more frozen meals than Safeway! I love Grandmas. Added to the cornucopia provided by Grandma Lynne we should be able to survive without cooking dinner until Christmas!

Along with baby kissing we took the Margenau Clan on several fun trips. It was interesting to realize that we now need 2 cars if there are more than 2 people visiting. On Saturday night we had Jerry over for dinner. He is one of my oldest friends, seeing as it was his family that had picked up mine at the airport in Hawaii way back in 1982. Anyway, Jerry and I had gone halves on a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Quite possibly the most expensive bottle of Scotch either of us will ever buy.

Fortunately it was very, very good and we both would consider buying another bottle. Just don't tell Linds. The high point of the first weekend was, in my opinion, going to Fedex Field to watch the Redskins win a squeaker against the Jacksonville Jaguars. I had found some awesome seats on Stubhub that put us just 5 rows back from the field on the 5 yard line! Other than a spilled Guinness it was a great experience. We got good parking and tailgated while listening to the early football games on the radio. Brats, beer and chips what more could we want?! It was even warm and sunny!

Our tickets gave us a nice view, don't you think? Well other than the bald guys head!

Here we are, just hanging out. Pops and the boys.

In the interest of keeping this from becoming a book I will stop now and continue the rest of the week in another post.

Go Speed Racer

2006-09-24T11:31:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer - This post is not about Luke

Yesterday there was a party to celebrate Phillip, our neighbors, 50th... er ... 40th (sorry about that) birthday. Really, when you get that old does it make a difference? So anyway Johanna, his wife, setup a great surprise party and showed up with Phillip blindfolded and thinking he was going to see some women of the night.

When he was finally allowed to see where he was Phillip looked very surprised and happy but maybe just a bit disappointed that there weren't cages and dancing poles.

We were all given our nasty smelling race suits which had apparently not been washed ever and then given a race briefing. The racetrack is called Allsports Grand Prix and is way out in Sterling, Virginia (near Dulles airport). As we sat through the briefing I figured I would be pretty good at this. I mean, I am a good driver and enjoy driving fast. Yeah, failed to figure in the whole 6.5 hp engine and biggest guy in the room factor. Dead last in qualifying. My problem was that I started accelerating out of the curve too soon and slid more than I needed to and being heavier than anyone else just made me slower down the straightaways. A little depressing but those little carts go fast and are hella fun to drive.

In the real race I did a little better coming in 7th of 9, mainly due to a late race spin out that allowed me to pass a few people. In the end though the birthday boy won beating most of us by a lap or more and celebrated on the podium with style.

It was great fun and I got to meet some of the other neighbors from the complex. We finished out the night with dinner at Phillips favorite restaurant and then all drove the speed limit home. Hard to do after a night of racing.

Now in video... Luke!

2006-09-16T10:49:00.000-04:00

The epic saga begins...

Luke... I am your father.

And I've got a video camera!

Sorry I've just been dying to say that now for a while. The first part, not the video camera part. So anyway along around Thursday Linds gets a call at home from Grandpa Jim (aka His Honor, Grandpa His Honor, or Grandpa B) which turns out to be a follow up to an earlier phone call. The first phone call involved a threat to buy a video camera for us if we didn't put more pictures up on the blog. Well the second call was a follow through on this threat. Now we have a video camera. A really damn spiffy one too. It's a Sony DCR-DVD505, a DVD video cam. What does all this mean? Not really sure, but now we can make home DVD's of our precious little baby to save and cherish and love for ever. I think we can also load them on the Internet and show them to all of you all.

Side note - If you are not a regular coffee drinker don't switch from decaf to 3 cups in one morning. The jitters are pretty bad.

How are we going to get these videos to you, the reader? I think we are going to use youtube and this means you will need a youtube account. I think. I shot some video of our little burrito this morning and will attempt to post them to youtube so everyone can view them.

Finally, after about an hour of trying and most of the coffee wearing off I think I have figured it all out. Click on this link FIRST VIDEO and hopefully it will take you to youtube and let you watch the video without having a membership. By the way the movie is pretty boring and not edited. But if it works more will follow.

Some help here would be appreciated. If anyone knows of a simple but good video editing software for a pc I would be very stoked. Then the videos won't be boring, or at least less boring.

Kyle

Luke's first few days

2006-09-09T16:48:00.000-04:00

In recent days we've had some increasingly persistent calls for more baby pictures! We honestly have been taking them, its just that finding time to get on the computer, download them, and load them on the blog, is becoming really difficult between sleeping, eating, and dealing with a newborn! Anyways, we finally got these ones in, so wanted to share them.

Our sweet munchkin. Seriously, isn't he gorgeous? Amazing we could create something so perfect...

He gets this perplexed look while he's sleeping when we take pictures using the flash! Poor little guy...

Aren't these the most perfect fingers you have ever seen?

Luke's first bath today. Lets just say he's not a huge fan of baths. I absolutely LOVE the angry face picture of him - Kyle caught it on the camera and it absolutely cracks me up every time i see if. Who knew a 3-day old could express such personality?! And don't you love his little frog bath towel?

More baby pictures

2006-09-06T16:39:00.000-04:00

As promised here are some better shots of Linds and Luke. We are all home from the hospital and the cats have not freaked out yet.

Welcome Luke James Margenau

2006-09-06T00:37:00.000-04:00

September 5, 2006

Luke James Margenau entered the world at 8:57 eastern time. He weighed in at 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Linds labored like a champ, going fully natural except for the pitocin. For the story on why we induced see the baby blog. No epidural, no episiotomy, no problem. Labor took just about 8 hours.

Everyone is healthy and great. I'm sorry there are no close ups of Linds. She looked pretty wiped by the time we had a chance to take them. I will post more tomorrow.

Dressing the Baby

2006-09-03T17:09:00.000-04:00

Alas, still in the oven as of 9/3/06

I have to give him credit for smart thinking. I mean, its warm, cozy, food is provided regularly and someone cleans up after you. He won't get this again till he is married!

So being that it is the due date and all we decided that if the little fella didn't want to come out, well, we would still pretend. We (Linds, me and her mom) are all very excited to finally have the baby and so we finally got around to packing the hospital bag. This brought on a whole load of issues such as, "What if he weighs 12 pounds?" and "What if he doesn't fit the clothes we bring?" So to answer these tough questions we went to the source.

I mean really, is there any better way to find out if the clothes will fit? We looked from several angles and decided this was a nice outfit on him so, if he ever decides to be born, this is what he will come home in.

And yes, for those of you who are wondering, we are going a bit crazy and yes Linds says that is the way he is actually positioned in the oven.

P.S. Piko would not agree to the fitting so we had to use this alternative.

A Blast from the Past!

2006-08-27T11:41:00.000-04:00

Still no baby

So my mom finally went through and cleaned out a lot of my junk and mailed it to me. That was about a year ago. Linds finally forced me to go through the stuff and figure out what I wanted and what I didn't. She also forced me to sell my comic books. But that's a whole nother story.

Anyway, I was going through the stacks of old yearbooks, cards, letters and pictures and stumbled across some pictures that reminded me of all the fun I had in college. Upon starting at HPU some of the first people I met were Donna, Chewie and Jeff. We were all in the Marine Bio program, well Donna was in oceanography but at that point it didn't matter, and we had almost all of our classes together.

We were all pretty young, me probably most of all, and spent a good bit of time trying to figure it all out. Eventually Jeff figured it out different from the rest of us and moved on. Donna and Chewie remain some of my closest friends even though we don't talk all that often anymore. They are the kind of people who when we do talk it is just like we saw each other yesterday.

I think it was Chewie who I truly teamed up with in college. We figured out that it was possible to be total goofs and jokers and still pull good grades. We were always active in class and always found ways to have a good time. The picture up above is one that the two of us took in our cell and molecular bio class while doing DNA analysis. Our teacher, a nasty and really lousy one (she was the only really bad teacher we had), had stepped out and we picked up the polaroid with its hood and snapped off this one. I think we got in trouble.

Donna was my local girl connection. We were instantly friends and to this day can talk to each other about any topic. She is the really smart one of the group, always studying and then maxing out the tests. I think it was Donna that taught me how to study for tests. Usually this involved many hours in the Windward City Starbucks. She and her husband Brandon live in Atlanta now and we got a chance to see them on our spring break trip. It was just like old times. Joking, talking about family and friends and hanging out.

I still look back on my time in college and think of all the fun we had and how different it would have been if I hadn't met the people I did. How fortunate I was/am.

Good Friends! Don't leave home without them!

A gifted artist

2006-08-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

August 14, 1986

Enter little brother Scott Jonathan into the world. Affectionately known from then on as Scotty Boy. Wasn't he a cute baby?

With 9 years separating us it was a long time before we could really hang out like brothers. I took him surfing when he was 7 or so for the first time. I would paddle out in Waikiki with him on the front of my 11'0" and paddle us into waves. He was always a good sport but not always willing to take on the big waves. That's ok, by the time he was 14 he was charging Sandy's with me and now he surfs way more and way better than I do.

Along about 16 or so he started fishing and spearing we would take him out on the boat and teach him how to dive. Now he owns his own boat, or at least part of one and catches boatloads of fish.

Scotty was always the little brother but now he is almost grown up. For the first time this summer we really got to hang out like brothers. Well, he didn't drink beer, but everyone needs a reliable DD. At anyrate when we were on vacation we had a great time. It makes me really happy that he grew up to be such a good kid ... err... man. Scott has his head on straight and has a good direction in life.

As the title alludes to he is an amazingly gifted artist. He carves wood, bone, waves, fish whatever. It is always well done and done with grace and style. He carved this fish hook for my birthday and I am just amazed by how cool it is. I know that he will excel in whatever he chooses to do and I am proud to have him as my little brother!

Happy Birthday Scotty Boy!!!

You're a good man

Memories of Kenya

2006-08-11T15:05:00.000-04:00

At least once a week I think back to our trip to Kenya last year. If I'm at school I think of it every time I sit down at my computer since pictures from the trip are both my wallpaper and my rather grisly screensaver. So anyway Kenya, I was thinking today that I was ready to live outside of the US again even talked about it while I ran with my friend this morning. As I was driving home from lunch a small SUV passed me and had this familiar looking logo on the wheel cover.
I looked at it and thought, no... can't be. Hey I think I ate there. So quickly mustering all of my manual dexterity I grabbed my phlash phone out of my pocket and snapped a photo.

When I got home, as in three minutes ago, I looked up the address online and sure enough, I was right. Jess and Julie our friends who lived in Nairobi and now live in rainy old Seattle took us there at least once and maybe more than that. I remember it having really good coffee and really good mexican food. Go figure. Maybe I'm just a little confused but I'm sure Julie will correct me if I'm wrong.

I just thought it was cool and a fun reminder of one of the neat places we went.

Our new Baby...

2006-07-28T18:06:00.000-04:00

Bet that title made a few of you blink! Just kidding - this one has 4 wheels, instead of 2 legs!

Well, we fought it off for 2 years but living in America - land of "bigger is better" had to get the better of us eventually. We have officially joined the ranks of SUV-owning Americans! Now, to be fair, its a small SUV, and gets gas mileage almost as good as our little car does. But its got enough space for a baby (and a stroller, and a car seat, and a diaper bag...) and has some really fun luxury features that we love.

Its a 2006 Nissan Murano. Dad, make sure to thank Chris for giving us the idea to consider the Nissan! Its got black leather seats (all the better for wiping up cracker goo and mashed banana), a navigation system, memory and heated seats, keyless ignition (no purse digging for keys - the car senses when they are close and lets you turn it on) and a really cool sound system. While it definitely feels more like an SUV than our little car, I'm getting used to driving it and really loving being up higher so I can see more on the road. We had to say goodbye to our cute little Toyota truck, which was a bit sad for Kyle who has been driving it for 2 years, but we got a good trade-in price for it. So until a certain other 'baby' arrives, this one will fill the spot!

Two years ago today...

2006-07-23T15:07:00.000-04:00

Kyle and I, (and many of you!) were at Turtle Bay resort in Hawaii. At 5:30 pm on a beautiful sunny day, we exchanged the vows and promises that have tied us to one another for the past two years. I continue to be amazed that marriage is not only far more fun than I imagined, but that I really do love Kyle every more each day I get to spend with him. Happy Anniversary to us!

Things you just DON'T say to a pregnant woman...

2006-07-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

Are you sure you're 8 months pregnant? I hope everything is alright because you don't look big enough...

Wow, keep eating like that and you'll be as big as a house!

Depending on who is looking those are the two most common things Linds has heard for the last 3 weeks. Neither of which are really her favorite. So if you see her something more like, "Wow you are glowing!" or "pregnancy suits you, you look great!" would be better ideas.

Just thought I should let you know.

Our last week in Canada was quite a bit more relaxing. We spent a couple of days with my family in Victoria and then saw them off to finish their part of the journey with a drive back to Oregon and a couple of days of rest away from Linds and I and her family.

Our time in Victoria was really nice. We went shopping, showed my family around the place and even took them hiking up around Thetis lake and forced Scotty to swim in the frigid arctic waters of Canada again. He loved it.

Victoria Rex

2006-07-12T15:47:00.000-04:00

On the way down from Comox to Victoria Scotty and I forced a side trip to Bungy Zone. We spent our hard earned money to willingly throw ourselves off a 144 foot bridge! So much fun!

I'm not afraid of heights, I don't get bad vertigo and I enjoy jumping off of ledges and rocks into pools of water. All that being said when I found myself standing on the edge of this tiny little platform above a river the anti-suicide gene still kicks in.

For those of you who have never jumped, after the cord is tied tightly to your leg you have to hop or chicken walk out to the edge of the ledge. As you do this the nice little jump master dude calmly throws the rest of the bungy cord off the ledge, the bugger. As the cord is thrown off it has quite a bit of mass and this mass is now accelerating towards the ground. The problem is that the end of the cord is attached to my legs, which are attached to me! When the cord bottoms out there is an almighty scary jerk on me! Still scares the crap out of me.

So anyways, the jump, Scotty went first and did a spectacular swan dive.

Then it was my turn. As I stood on the edge I thought to myself, "why the hell am I doing this?" The anti-suicide gene kicking in and telling me to turn around and just not do it.
"3,2,1... Bungy!!!" Yells the jump Master and jump I do.

The rest of the trip down island was much less exciting. We introduced my family to a Canadian experience, Tim Horton's, which they now also call Timmy's. We arrived safely at Linds mom's house and that is where the next story will start up.

Look!... A Boat

2006-07-12T14:50:00.001-04:00

Ah road trippin with the Margenau's. For about 7 hours we drove from Salem to Vancouver. I drove most of the way, that was great, and my dad drove a little. That was not so great. Somehow I got stuck in the back seat and I hate to say it, but I just don't fit. At any rate most of the way up the most common phrase heard in the car was, "Look! A boat!" uttered by Scotty. I love him but it gets old. At anyrate, we survived. There was a bit of bad traffic around Tacoma and the border took about 40 minutes but otherwise it was mostly painless. We are now on our last night at Linds dad's house and tomorrow we go down to her moms house.

Our time in Vancouver was great, we got to see a lot of our friends and finally got to show my parents where we had lived for a year. It was a very busy couple of days, biking, hiking, swimming eating and then on the ferry to Comox.

Not only did we get to show the folks around Vancouver but we finally got to meet Colin and Kelsey, fellow bloggers, and originally friends of Jess and Julie. We had actually never met them but knew them well from their blogs. Kind of weird, but hey, that's the purpose of a blog right?

The rest of this entry will just be pictures with a few words describing this part of the trip.
Scott and I on my birthday at a park with lots of waterfalls.

Linds and I at another waterfall

Scott and I paddling Kayaks in Comox

Dinner at Chris and Darcie's house. What an amazing place with a view all the way across the inside passage. We had a huge dinner cooked by Chris and then sat and watched the sunset.

We also spent a day on Ceara with my family and Jess and Julie who came to the island with us. We had lots of fun, swimming and flying the kites and jumping off the boat.

Here is Scott doing a suicide.

Dad also jumped in. Mom doesn't look so impressed as she watches through the window.

On our last day in Comox we went hiking up on Mt. Washington. It was a very cool place. Lots of snow on the ground which all of my family found exhilarating. The hike was full of the neat little mountain glens and clearings.

While we were up there hiking and playing Scott thought it would be fun to start throwing snowballs at me. He finally hit me with one so I turned around and sacked him into the snow. This picture was taken just after I had pinned him to the snow and was making a wise retreat.

The next day we were off to Victoria. There will be much more to write about soon.

The last day in Oregon

2006-07-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

For some reason the laptop here in Comox does not want to work well with Blogger so I will keep this short and hope it works. Our full last day in Oregon happened to be my birthday. Yep I am officially almost old. 29. It is my golden year, 29 on the 29th. The day was fairly quiet, Linds and Scotty and I went for a hike and we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. The coolest part of the day was the random chance that Tanya, who I grew up with in Hawaii, tracked me down and came down from Portland to see us. Her and Scott, her boyfriend not my brother, drove down and had dessert with us and then we went out for a few drinks. They also brought me some spectacular beer from a local brewery. I am still drinking it up here in Canada.

I promise that we will update the rest of the trip sooner or later.

Three broken kites

2006-06-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

So the road trip with the Margenau's has begun. We met my family at the airport, well actually the car rental place, and spent an hour in traffic getting to Salem and then another hour getting to Lincoln City on the coast.

We spent several days there and had a really good time. It was quite windy which suited Scotty and I just fine as he bought a kite and I had brought mine with me. We proceeded to bust the first two kites Scott bought and then started ripping out one of mine. There was also a big kite festival on while we were there so Scotty entered a "Running of the Bowls" race with much prompting from a big brother...

He came in second and won a small kite. We spent most of the evenings flying our kites and even taugh dad and linds how to fly them.

Scott and I both graduated to flying 4 string kites which give you a whole new dimension of flight -- reverse! SO COOL!

After watching part of a documentary called American Beer, which so far seems like a good flick, I decided to continue my new years resolution to only drink good beer and expand it to drink as many new beers as possible. So in and along with the kite flying was a good bit of beer drinking from Windmer, Deshutes, and about a half dozen or more micro breweries along the west coast. We were lucky to find a Summer Beer games, which was much more serious than it sounds. There were some competitions like the keg toss but also a whole lot of neat small batch beers to taste. There's really nothing a nice a s a liquid lunch.

The next day we flew the kites, walked on the beach, drank beer and then to mix it up a bit, we blew glass balls. And yes, Gabe and Josh, we blew them well. The Oregon coast and especially the Lincoln City area is famous, I guess, for their glass blowers and glass factories. For just a few (a lot) dollars we could make our own glass floats.

Here is Scotty loading up his molten glass with the colored glass chips. The next pic is of Linds and my glass ball right before I started filling it with air.

The whole experience was really cool and I learned a lot about the physics that go into glass blowing.

Today we are back in Salem and hanging out with my aunt and uncle. We spent the day shopping and lounging and hiking and berry picking. We picked cherries, raspberries and blueberries.

Linds, who professed not to like berries a few months ago and now drinks a big smoothie each day was a raspberry fiend. Tonight we are having fresh berry cobbler for desert.

We spend tomorrow in Salem then on Friday we're heading North - driving to Vancouver for a couple days then over to the Island to visit with Linds' parents. Hope to see most of you in the next few days!

Responses

2006-06-21T14:57:00.000-04:00

There were a number of comments about the last entry I made so I figured I should respond.

Josh - If I could spell or knew any of that thar englash stuff, well, I reckon I might teach englash. But then I'd have to figure out if I were supposed ta teach Canadian or American Englash.

Tiina - I was given the department chair job more because there was no one else who wanted it than anything else. Also, down here its just kind of another duty and a dirty duty at that. With the exception of the math department chair who just retired after holding the department chair job for 20 some odd years, most of the Chairs are relatively new teachers. 5 or 6 years is the average amount of experience. All that being said though, I think it will be a great experience and should go fairly well if I can keep them from killing each other. The best thing about the department is we are all quite close and go out as a department pretty often for drinks or have parties. That is what makes Sandburg such a good school, the teachers.

All that being said, thanks for the comments it lets us know someone actually reads all this craziness we write.

Kyle

Schools out for SUMMER!!

2006-06-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

To the strains of Aloha Friday they were sent on their way. Aloha, see ya later, have a great summer.

All in all it was a pretty good year. I feel much more confident as a teacher and secure in the way I conduct my classroom. The student's are what make it such an interesting career. Each is different, each is the same. They all need something, an education, a role model, a kick in the pants, whatever. That is the job and I am happy to do it. I hope they learned something and I know I did my best to prepare them for life and ninth grade. A few of them will be the next big names in business and politics some will do other things. Hopefully they all figured out that they can succeed, even the ones who chose to come back to eighth grade next year, because a choice that was too. You can't win all the battles but you can try. I like it and will keep on trying.

Next year I have stepped up, or been pushed up, to be department chair for Science. That means I will be responsible for about 12 science teachers, which is a daunting task. I think the thing I will find most difficult is playing peacemaker. That many personalities makes for some interesting times. All that along with a new baby, should be a fun and restful year, I'm sure!

And with that being said it is time for lunch followed by some true Aloha Friday celebrations!

I hope you all have a good summer. Our next post will come from vacation-land. Either in Oregon or Canada. Road trippin' with the Margenau's.

祝贺丹和雌鸟

2006-06-13T17:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't speak Chinese - the blog title reads "Congratulations Dann and Jenny!".

On June 3, on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand, my step-brother Dann married his gorgeous wife Jenny. Dann and Jenny live in Taiwan, so we don't get to see them as often as we wish we could. They chose to get married in Thailand to do a western-style ceremony, followed by a traditional Taiwanese reception in Tainan. Most of my family has now been in Thailand with them for 2 weeks for the wedding and associated activities. I feel a bit like the kid in Home Alone who was left at home while the whole family goes on vacation - I so wish we could be there too! However, long trans-oceanic flights aren't recommended at this stage in pregnancy, and Kyle isn't able to get the time off work to make a trip to Asia worthwhile. So we have been receiving updates from my dutiful sister and it sounds like everything is going wonderfully.

From some of the emails I've seen, it seems the wedding was a bit wild so I'm looking forward to getting those photos! These photos here were - remarkably - taken about 4 months ago! In Taiwan it is customary for a bride and groom to buy a number of different wedding outfits (I think Jenny had 5 dresses!) and to do all their photographs in advance! So luckily we have some great photos to use until their actual wedding day pictures come through.

The Great Black Hunter's first conquest

2006-06-09T07:58:00.000-04:00

Our very own Great Black Hunter made his first foray into stealth killing yesterday. Oli spends every morning out on our patio while I'm getting ready for work. As a strictly indoor kitty, he really enjoys these limited patio priviledges and is always more friendly in the mornings because of them. But yesterday I think he even surprised himself and caught one of those pesky flying things that always buzz around him on the patio.

I came downstairs from getting ready and found Oli lying under the kitchen table. Thats always strange - usually he extends his time outside as long as possible. But I'd left the door open in case he got too hot in the morning sun, and thought he came in to cool off. Then I noticed what appeared to be a little furry brown mouse - a cat toy we have many of - lying near him. But when the furry mouse lifted off and flew into the kitchen window I knew we had more of an issue! Oli was fast behind and tackled the poor thing one more time for good measure, before I tore him off and grabbed it. It was a poor little female sparrow, who didn't look too much the worse for wear from the whole ordeal - simply confused as to why she was inside this house with this nasty black creature. I checked her over for injury, and only noticed one puncture wound by her leg. But she was otherwise intact, and when I placed her on the bird feeder to get her wits back, she immediately took off and comfortably flew into a nearby tree. I could see her moving around with the other sparrows in the tree, so I hope she survives the terrible ordeal.

We have always been extra careful with Piko, who spent his first 6 months on the streets as a stray, and has outstanding hunting skills. But Oli, having been an indoor cat his whole life, always looked more confused than amused by the birds on the patio. Needless to say, he has now lost all patio priviledges for the near future and is one grumpy cat!

Oh, Ottawa, my home and well maybe my home

2006-05-29T21:41:00.000-04:00

Ah Ottawa, dismal dark and full of mostly sour memories, or so we thought. My last memory of Ottawa was melting snow revealing the winter presents left by countless dog owners and the sweet smells that went along with them. Also the sound of a yowling cat as we drove out of town on the way to Washington.

I think all of our memories of our time in Ottawa have been clouded by the last few feverish weeks. It was cold, we were stressed, it was colder, we were unsure of what our life in DC would bring, it was colder still.

Going back this weekend and finally seeing, and enjoying a couple of summer days in Ottawa was really nice. It made us both remember all the good things and times we had in there. Mainly, it made us both remember that we have a lot of great friends there and even though they are moving away this summer to start their postings they will always be back and we will always be able to make foreign service friends in Ottawa.

The main reason for our trip was to attend the wedding of our friends Darren and Julia. (Note: I am sure I will spell someone's name incorrectly so until Linds come home to fix it I apologize). After many years happily together Darren finally worked up the nerve and asked Julia to make him an honest man and well, fortunately, she said yes.

The ceremony was held at the Museum of Civilization in a beautiful location and followed by what I can only say was the most fun and cool reception setting I have attended. The reception wound its way through the museum itself, with food or drinks at every turn. It was after hours so the only people there were those from the reception. It was really neat. After the reception their was an after party at a local bar. All in all it was a great time and along with getting to spend some time with Darren and Julia, who we haven't seen in a while, we also got to see a number of other people from DFAIT.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit wobbly, but nothing a hearty breakfast at Cora's couldn't fix. This is Linds favorite breakfast, if not any, restaurant in the whole wide world. She claims she could eat there every day for ever.

We spent most of the day touring various houses and townhome complexes in the search for a place to live when we move back. We had a made a list of open houses and then just went looking in neighborhoods we wanted to see. All of this was done in the convertible, with the top down.

A short tirade follows...

So yeah, a convertible. Practical right? Reasonable? Not what you picture us in? Us neither. Dollar, hereafter referred to as the crappiest place to rent a car and never to be rented from again, or maybe just as "that place", was supposed to keep a car for us. We had a great deal, $60 for the whole weekend. Awesome! So we show up at 3, when our plane lands, only to find that "that place" was not at the airport but a short shuttle ride away. Ok, that's fine. We get there, in the rain, and the nasty little man behind the desk tells us they have given away our car because we were too late! What? Yeah turns out that if you rent from"that place" they only hold the car for 2 hours and then give it away. Our rez was for 10 am. But wait, they can give a big old honkin' gas guzzler for just $45! Great, for the whole weekend? Nope per day. Riiiggghhht. Phonebook please, you jerk.

So, short story long, we ended up at Alamo, the nice people, who gave us a convertible for $80 for the whole time. Morale of the story, rent from Alamo, not "that place"

Back to the main story...

We had dinner that night with Joanne and Rich, friends from Vancouver and now Montreal/Ottawa.

The next morning we had breakfast up in Quebec (pronounced K-bec) with Tania and Rodney and Asha their very cute little girl. It was great. We met Tania and Rodney when we lived in Vancouver, Tania was in language training with Linds. They live up in the boonies now but it is an amazing place and they are good outdoors people and make use of all they have available.

We spent that day also looking at houses before having dinner in Ottawa with Christa and Pablo and their big lads Jeremy and Manu. Christa started the same year as Linds at DFAIT and they became fast friends. Pablo and I started hangin out and eventually he became my winter sports partner.

He also used to think he was very fast on cross-country skis. A really great guy and someone I will miss hanging out with since he and Christa and the boys are moving to Japan this summer for 4 years. Hopefully next year we will be able to get out there and see them. We shall see, there's this whole new baby thing we have to consider.

Our last morning dawned bright and clear and so once again with the top down we headed out to breakfast. And yes, once again we went to Cora's. It was again, amazingly good and I may come around to Linds' way of thinking. Just don't tell her that.

All in all it was a great time. I am really happy that we got to see so many people that we knew and spent so much time with when we lived in Ottawa. I am also really happy that we got to see Ottawa in such a nice light. It was an experience that showed us both that we could live there again. While maybe not our first choice we now know that we could be happy there for a few years. We have lots of friends to see and lots of new ones to make.

It's good to have choices, and its great to have friends.

A goodbye to my last Grandparent (Lindsay)

2006-05-21T19:08:00.000-04:00

My dad's mom, Grandma Jean, died last Saturday. She was my last living grandparent, by about 10 years. Unfortunately Grandma deteriorated physically, far before her mind was ready to be old. She was confined to a body that failed her long before she was ready to stop living. Her pain and illness took a lot out of her, and she had told us for years that she was ready to go. I just don't think any of us were quite ready to let go of her.

Even to the end, she maintained so much of her spirit. Grandma got out of the nursing home a few times a week for a dinner with the family, and always wanted her cigarette and glass of scotch - complete with a straw - immediately upon arrival. She had some very strong opinions - despite the fact that it became harder and harder for her to communicate them with a failing voice. And she was extremely proud of all three of her children, and her three granddaughters, always remembering who was doing what and asking us about it during our phone calls.

Only a few weeks ago, we finally told her that she would become a Great-Grandma in September. It makes me sad that my son won't be able to meet his great-grandma, who would have so loved to see him.

Running Scared

2006-05-08T21:10:00.000-04:00

Not just scared but sick too.

This will be my last post on the running front for a while. Promise. Well, unless I see a good doctor who can magically cure my ills and put me back on the track. We shall see.

So this weekend I did the Pantherlon. Sounds glorious and challenging doesn't it? It's the little fundraiser run at my school and about 300 people do it each year. We had a pretty good turnout this year and nice weather. I also brought along my new personal running coach/slave driver, Jerry. Jer and I grew up in Hawaii and now he is out here living with his parents after finishing grad school and trying to pay down the national debt.

Anyway, I made the mistake of telling ye old slave driver that I wanted to better my time from the Parkway Classic. Jerry took this to mean beat me into the ground. We started out at what seemed a blistering pace but I settled into it and felt if not good, then ok. Mile 1 - 8:30! Holy smokes, that's 37 seconds off my normal evening run pace.

Still feeling ok. Mile 2 - 8:15!!!! Yikes! Now the pain is coming. Somewhere along the way I pass a water station and have a drink. Mistake. Now my body wants to throw up every step. At least the 3 advil are keeping the shins from hurting too much. Just keep the breakfast down. Keep the breakfast down. Only a little more...

Walking...

Running... Hurting...Walking...

Damn it I'm not going to blow those times by walking. 20 seconds was way to much. Jerry took off with about a half mile to go and finished in good time. Me I kept on and despite the walking still managed to shave 1:30 off my time!

I feel really good about that and only got beat by 3 of my students so I don't have to hand out too much extra credit. Now, anyone know a good sports medicine doctor? And yes, my shins hurt like heck the next day.