The Fry Side

At around 10:30 this morning, I went under general anesthetic. At 11:11 (a very lucky number) I was awake enough to ask the time. My two wisdom teeth were out and in their places were a pair of chunks of bloody gauze. I was still fading in and out, and my dearly beloved was smiling her beautiful smile, holding back from utterly mocking me in my state.

Recovery has been easy, really. I just sat around watching movies, waiting for numbness to subside enough for me to down some ibuprofen and penicillin. Then yogurt. By the evening, I was up and making dinner for the kids.

It’s not that M wasn’t helpful. She handled Em in all her snotty, cold-laden glory. For me, since I was able to be up and about, following my routines helped distract me from the pain and hunger.

Still, I tried a homemade egg drop soup. Simple and worked okay: 2 cups of chicken stock, 2 lightly beaten eggs, and a bit of salt. Boil the broth, slowly pour in the eggs, gently breaking them up a bit with a fork. Last, add a touch of salt for taste (not that I could taste all that much). Don’t add too much salt, because you don’t want to hide the flavor of the egg. I also want to try adding a bit of ginger next time I have a cold; supposedly that will help.

I was also able to gum down a bit of what I call bachelor chow (a la Futurama). It’s just a pound of ground beef for tacos, with a can of refried beans mixed in at the end. Long-lasting leftovers no one else in the house will touch. I made it in anticipation of my surgery.

Sorry for all the food talk. I got hungry after mandated fasting before the anesthetic, a minimum of six hours. Now I’m waiting to take another dose of preventative penicillin before bed.

I hadn’t realized it, but it’s been nearly three weeks since I last posted pictures of the kids.  As the old saying goes, time flies when you’re starting grad school again.  So here are pictures from last weekend when Mommy took the kids to the zoo and amusement park.  (To keep the home site clean, I’m going to put most of the pictures below the fold.)

“Good morning, Mommy, it’s time to get up!”

“Let’s scare Daddy by text messaging at age 1.”

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So while walking to school this morning, the boy asked me, “How do we kill birds?”

Now, my son isn’t vindictive toward our fine avian friends, he just knows that we as omnivorous mammals, meat must be killed prior to ingestion. Plus, my friend and I were talking about spotting birds (I had apparently seen a crane in flight while I was driving last night), so the whole thing isn’t entirely out of context.

I started by explaining that we have farms that raise chickens and turkeys for eating. The lad said he knew (I’ve explained it before), but how to we kill birds in the sky?

Well here we go. My son, being a five year old, has already seen and pretended to use many different weapons. Most of them have been blasters or phasers from science fiction, and I’m fine with that. But still I refuse to deny him knowledge of most things that he would find out anyway and would rather he know them properly.

I started with the fact there are handguns/pistols, and there are long-arms. That’s an easy enough place to differentiate small guns from big guns. So we’re talking about hunting, and unless you’re a friend of my dad’s, you hunt with a long-arm.

In long-arms, you can then break down into groups shotguns, rifles, and assault rifles. Assault rifles are used by soldiers in battle. That’s the only place they’re needed. Easy enough to understand.

Rifles, next, are used to hunt bigger animals like deer and wild pigs. They shoot a single big bullet in one spot. That’s what you need to take down larger animals.

So with smaller animals like birds, you need a smaller bullet. That’s when you use shotguns. Shotguns don’t fire one big bullet, they fire a bunch of little bullets over an area. So that’s what you take with you when you, for example, go out into a swamp and hunt ducks.

What about moose, dad? Can you hunt moose?

Sure you can. What do you want to use to hunt a big moose? Something that shoots a big bullet or little bullets?

A rifle.

That’s right, good job. Glad it makes some sense.

We continue walking.

Dad, look at this picture I drew. That’s the sun, that’s Earth, that’s Jupiter, and, uh, what other planets are there?

Lesson learned. I have no qualms with my children knowing about life and death, particularly since they’re so intertwined. I wouldn’t mind showing him how the different weapons work next time we’re visiting Granddad and checking out his collection of vintage toys.

Addendum: Since I have an inquisitive mind, I went ahead and Googled long-arms. Nothing. Apparently I’ve been using the wrong term for years. According to Wikipedia, the terms are long guns and short guns. I probably got mixed up with the fact that my mum has used long-arm quilting machines for years. Glad I didn’t bring up that fact and confound the boy further.

Guess who loves the leftover kitchen implements.

And guess who’s ready for summer with her new sun hat.

And, best of all, a great torch has been passed.  That’s my boy and my niece playing the greatest game ever made.

I don’t think he’s too happy that I’ve photographed him losing.

Recently I acquired something awesome. Now, my awesome is of a different definition than most. I live in a different universe than everyone else; I know that for certain. I once told my five year old son that what he said was interesting and he replied, ‘No, Dad, it’s not interesting.’ He knows better than I do, certainly.

Still, I think this development at my household will be appreciated by some. Check out what I scored for my garage:

That’s right, I got cabinets! In one fell swoop, I managed to quadruple my storage and give me a workspace for about 25¢ of gas. It was sitting out in the back of the school to be thrown out. So it’s heavy, ugly, used, and since it came from the teacher’s lounge, covered in coffee stains.

In other words, it’s perfect! There’s even room for the cat food and water dispensers at the end of it. I can actually start storing things without taking up more space and have a place to work on stuff outside of a basement closet. I still have some cleaning and sorting (and pitching) to do, but the garage is on its way to being useful. Here’s another view:

And yes, that’s the Lad with his patented grin wearing a bicycle helmet. And on top of the shelf in the background is my sweet new glow-in-the-dark basketball to replace the one that, ahem, a certain Uncle managed to puncture (wink). The bike was the big Easter present from Mom and Dad this year. He’s mighty stoked. And of course, knowing he’s being filmed means he’s going to grin at the camera.

Mom, I know what the rocks out by our garbage can are called.

[pause]

Agate Moochers!

What?

Agate Moochers!

Uh, no honey. They aren’t moochers. Agates are types of rocks.

Yeah. I, I was just kidding. They’re Agate Shields!

No… They could be agates…

No. Mom. They’re tigers’ eyes!

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A whole year passed since my daughter was born. My parents came out this past weekend to join us in celebrating, and the Lass rewarded them with lots of smiles and even five new steps. It was a grand visit for sure. I think they enjoyed sitting back and just being with the grandkids. This was good, because I apparently had a bout of food poisoning to get over (it’s a week later now, and I finally am feeling more like myself).

My dad and I did a number of little projects around the house. He always has good ideas for solving the problems I have. I still need to complete putting chicken wire in the basement ceiling to keep the cats out. But at least some holes have been patched, doorstops installed, and a baby gate blocking the stairs. The Lass is really enjoying having more room to roam.

It still is astounding how much faster life travels when you are older. I think kids really make a difference with that too. As a parent, a big chunk of your life is lived for them, but time does flow right past, even while you’re not concentrating on yourself. And rather than celestial events to use as markers, you use your children’s events.

A year ago, my daughter was born. It was a little warm, but it snowed and got slushy. She held my finger so tight while she was wheeled to the nursery to have blood drawn and tests done (all standard stuff). My wife and I hadn’t settled on a name quite yet since after being born, she didn’t fit the ones we had thought of originally.

Then life kept moving. She’s gone from nothing to a smiling, babbling, nearly walking kid with a sense of humor. Just a year. But it also feels like so much more than a year, as if it was a different life entirely when my son was still in daycare and Mommy was home with the baby.

Now I have a new life to handle. The Lass up and about, and will be more and more. Toddling is coming. Meanwhile, the Lad is moving up and out. Riding a bike and skateboard will be happening shortly. High chances of handling crappy neighbors will probably follow. I hope that this summer he can find a kid or two nearby that can fulfill the needs for a friend that I cannot (and frankly should not).

Yes We Can!

Emily made it to the top 50 round starting March 23rd. I’ll be posting, emailing, and sending tweets out when it comes. Thanks, everyone, for helping our deserving little girl win.

From my wife:

Hey everyone! Emily is entered into the Star Tribune’s cutest baby contest. The winner is decided by user voting and I need some help!! The voting is only open for 1 day for each of the 10 voting rounds so I need everyone I can get to vote for Emily. If you click on the link below you can register to vote. Emily’s picture is below in case you don’t go right to her page. She is on the very first page.

Thank you!!!

http://startribune.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?PageType=VOTING&ContestID=5242&SubmissionID=543077&IncrementNumber=2#SubmissionDisplay

Addition: It appears you can vote every hour, so please do so if you’re inclined!

I know the fastest way for a blog to commit suicide is to not post. The next best way to kill a blog is to talk about blogging. So instead of all that, I’ll list all the things I’ve been doing instead.

• Tending to ill children. Since the beginning of the year, I have had a single week of being at work for my full hours. There’s always been at least one member of the family ill, including myself. I’d get a call in the middle of the week saying one of the children has a fever and I’d have to get them and keep them home for an extra day. And if you think you’re in a place to be even minimally creative when you’re cradling a baby with a 104 degree fever, you’d be wrong.
• Reading. Not all that much; just a couple of novels. Still, it’s far more than the nothing I’d previously been reading. And to my wife’s great satisfaction, I have read the first book of the Twilight series. It was good, but it definitely reads as a teenage chick book, including the irrationality that goes in the mind of its target audience.
• Working. When I’m not handling sick children. It’s been both busier at work and, at the same time, unmotivating. There’s been enough to keep me occupied lately; we’ve switched over to new servers, so we’ve of course had to deal with bugs that crop up with that. But the lack of quieter downtime keeps me from working on other projects and following the blogs that I formerly did. That all becomes a damper on my inspiration to blog.
• Experimenting in the kitchen. The lad and I have been watching cooking shows. I’ve been inspired to toy around with what little I know about food. I should take some cooking classes; I’ve always wanted to. But until that time and money frees up (cough), my family will be my guinea pigs.
• Journaling. Again, at least more than usual. I don’t know how long I have been writing for myself. Since junior high? Maybe late elementary school? Either way, I’m glad I’ve been putting pen to paper more often than twice a month.
• Nothing. It always feels like nothing. I have felt really stagnated for a while now. Getting myself into a new teaching licensure program has been slow. Taking so long to get healthy around here has meant falling behind housekeep. It’s been just a matter of existing from day to day.

Sorry to end on a downer. To cheer you up, go watch some season six of The Simpsons. That’s what I’m doing for my last day of spring break and I am laughing plenty.

But the ball! His groin! It works on so many levels!