Seven O'Clock Mocha

January 27, 2012 by Adam in Family

Sam and Emma are at their mom's, Duncan and Berry don't have school, and Joanna is staying at home.  That freak set of occurrences led me to coming to work at seven in the morning, something I did for years before assorted responsibilities caught up with me.  It's now eight and no one is at work yet.

Sam didn't make it to school yesterday, though it sounds like Emma did.  Jamie's going somewhere this weekend, so we'll have all four kids at home tonight.  I don't think we have any particular plans, and a boring weekend at home sounds wonderful.  I do want to take Sam out to get his hair cut, perhaps on Saturday.

Mask of the Red Death

January 25, 2012 by Adam in Family

Okay, it's not quite that bad, but it does seem that everyone is sick these days.  Earlier this week Duncan came home from school with stomach pain, and Joanna has been working from home as she felt pretty cruddy.  Jessica was sick and we sent her home early.  Yesterday Emma stayed home and Sam got sick at school, with Joanna picking him up.

At the moment, Sam's sleeping and Emma's reading quietly upstairs.  My stomach is a little funky, but I'm managing to work.  It does seem to be the season.

Sam's choir concert is tonight, assuming he can make it.  We need to pick up his shirt from school at lunch today, and then his all-black outfit will be complete.  It's still amazing that he can wear my shoes, though I'm still a little taller than he is, for a few months more at least.

Go-Live Monday

January 23, 2012 by Adam in Family

It's go-live morning at work, and I just successfully (I hope) finished getting things in place.  I still have some work to do, but it's the culmination of nearly a year of work.  It's nice to have it be so anticlimactic.

We had a far less exciting weekend, mostly hanging out with kids and celebrating Joanna's birthday.  Friday night was our date night, going to dinner at the Campbell House and then to the Very Little Theater for a play.  The first part of The Underpants was pretty good, if quite risque and quirky.  The ending, however, was unsatisfactory.  Maybe it was the madness-inducing red light and carnival like farwell.

I picked up Emma from her mom's while still in my PJs, and we all sat down for crepes and goodies.  I ran a lot of errands with Emma, picking up a new fish and tank for the misbehaving Chinese algae eater.  We also hit the library and filled up the air swimmer I got for Joanna's birthday.  I ended up giving it to Joanna early as I wasn't sure the Helium would stay.  I also managed to set up the new motion sensing cameras, which have been dutifully reporting motion to my phone periodically. 

Sunday was Joanna's birthday, and lots of hang out time.  Sam and I played a bunch of Cortex Command.  I made everyone either walk or play Just Dance 3 for exercise.  There was much playing with the fish, and the little kids put on a play where Berry was the minister between Nemo (the floating fish) and Emma's Barbie.  It was hysterically fun.

The evening wrapped up with pizza and Mythbusters, followed by cake.  Now we're back to the normal routine.  Hopefully the week will be relatively uneventful.

Here's a video of the weekend and Duncan and I's half-birthdays from last Thursday:

And here's some from the snow day of the weekend before:

Happy birthday!

January 22, 2012 by Seraph in Cortez

Happy birthday Isabell and Joanna!  What a wonderful day to be born!

Vaguely Bitter Mocha Friday

January 20, 2012 by Adam in Family

It's been a week and it's looking less promising that we'll recover the stolen jewelry.  I just got off the phone with the insurance company and it sounds like mine won't cover Joanna's stolen jewelry.  I think we'll end up getting a little from insurance, but not all that much.  Mom has been great calling all the pawn shops and I may go on a pawn shop tour next week to see if anything shows up.

On a happier note, Duncan and I celebrated our half birthdays yesterday.  I got a couple shirts and he got a couple video games.  Joanna arranged for goodies, and I saved half of my delicious bear claw to eat with my morning mocha.

Tonight Joanna and I are going to dinner and play to celebrate her birthday.  The latter sounds quite funny and risque. 

As for the weekend, I'm hoping to have a little downtime and work on some house projects.  I continue to fiddle with the security systems, the first piece of which was installed last night.  More arrive Monday, and hopefully we can adjust the sensitivity to keep the false positives to a minimum.  As it is, my webcam e-mailed me three times this afternoon.

Sunday is Joanna's official birthday.  There will be cake and presents.  Tomorrow I hope to accomplish some secret projects in preparation for the big event.

Work

January 20, 2012 by Seraph in Cortez

Sorry all if I'm out of touch for awhile.  I will be substituting for the 3/4 grade at Dixon for the next 2+ weeks because of a medical issue the teacher is having.  Love to all!

Wedding Planning

January 18, 2012 by Adam in Family

We met with Peg at Mount Pisgah this morning, an exceedingly cheerful ex-OSU teacher who seemed almost as excited about the wedding as we are.  She showed us around the pavillion and facilities, which seemed wonderfully non-traditional.  We did our best to imagine a warm summer day with full leaves on the oak trees, even though it was wet, windy, and chilly.  Despite it all, I think it will be great and there will be lots of things for people to do, and interesting places for the kids to explore.

I sicked mom on tracking down our stolen property.  The detective we're working with seems to think it's completely lost at this point, but my mom has tenaciously been giving it her best.  I figure we'll give it a few more days and then call the insurance company.

Joanna's taken the last couple days off to get some downtime.  Yesterday she spent part of the day watching the Dresden Files on Netflix and knitting, cooking baked oatmeal, and getting acupuncture.  Today she's been running a lot more errands, but hopefully had a few moments to take it easy.

I'm looking forward to Friday and taking Joanna out on a birthday extravaganza.  Should be fun for both of us.

John's family arrive today!

January 18, 2012 by Yayoe in Yayoe

HI There,

John's family will be arriving this afternoon from Boston and Seattle. We'll have almost a week of fun and adventures. We plan a lot of different activites and are relieved the weather yielded rain versus snow. After they depart I'll be leaving for Honolulu from February 1-9th. Sorry to miss the next family dinner but I'll be roughing it at Waikiki! Aloha for now!

Snowpocalypse

January 17, 2012 by Adam in Family

I think we're all still recovering after the weekend madness.  Joanna's taking today off and I'm busy relaxing at work.  Though there were lots of things I could have done related to the burgulary, I spent most of the time watching kids and relaxing while Joanna worked from home.

We had a light dusting of snow yesterday.  Emma and I tromped out early and made tiny snowpeople and slid down the hill.  I called Emma back in for crepes, and then all the younger kids and I went out to play as long as we could.  Sam eventually stumbled out of bed, looked outside funny, and went to his computer.

The day was pretty low-key.  Emma and Berry at one point created a spa that gave out back rubs.  I got my feet slathered in lotion for a dollar.  Sam and I worked on his game, getting the build buttons to work and our first NPC that wandered around randomly.  Sam was terribly excited.  I helped Duncan with texture packs for Minecraft.  All three little kids watched a little too much Sonic.

As the afternoon rolled around, Jessica came over.  Sam, Emma, and I went hiking in the woods at Hendrick's Park.  I tried to get them with my best riddles, which seemed to go over well.  Eventually we returned home to a dinner of eggs and chips, getting kids to bed, watching some shows, and collapsing to bed ourselves.

School was on today, but rumor has it we'll get a couple inches tonight.  I may be working from home tomorrow.

Long Day

January 14, 2012 by Adam in Family

It's the end of the day, we're getting kids to bed, and I'm pretty beat.

The day started early, feeding kids, and heading to Florence to talk to detectives and get our things.  We were met by a very nice officer who led us into the back to sort through all our things.  There was a pile of security outfits that we immediately declared wasn't ours, along with some big metal cutters.  What was ours, however, was an awful lot of computers, jewelry, and Joanna's guitar.

We didn't find the most valuable jewelry, though.  There were some loose stones that had been pried out of the rings, likely to sell the metal.  At this point, our hope is that we can identify who they sold it too.  I'm hopeful we'll know on Monday, as Lane County is required to identify the people selling their stuff.

We took a break for lunch and then went back to the police station to talk to the Eugene detectives.  They'd come out to fetch the suspects, who were evidently implicated in multiple other crimes.  There was lots of paperwork, pictures, and some questions about how the Prey software worked.

We made it home with tired kids.  I started the forensics on the computers and discovered the break-in was around 9 a.m., they turned on the computers again at 3:30 p.m. until 4:45 p.m., and turned them on at the motel at 9 p.m.  Jamie came over to pick up Sam's computer.  Jamie talked to her parole officer friend who thought the suspects would talk and try to cut a deal.  That would be nice, as at this point we just want to recover the jewelry.

I'm hoping tomorrow is more low-key.  We're reviewing security procedures and likely installing cameras.  Sam's coming over and rumor has it there will be snow the next few days.  Could be fun.