In the Schutte House

Looth tooth

2007-12-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

Helena was just complaining she had a sore tooth.
Upon inspection it appears to be loose!
yippe!!

Though she's quite nervous about the idea.

BTW I think I'm ditching the schutte house blog. May start again as something else

When did they change blogger?

2007-09-30T17:55:00.000-05:00

So I was going to do some little update to say that yes we are still breathing when I discovered I had to jump through a few dozen hoops just to log into blogger.

I'm this close to heading over to tumblr
You hear me google?

about those Halloween pictures...

2006-11-10T22:17:00.000-05:00

From november pics

Yeah, I mentioned I'd post pictures from Halloween. Well, it turns out we only have a few. Seems again we sort of forgot to take the obligatory pics of the kids in their costumes. Click on the above pumpkin for some of the pictures we did get.

Our ideas are better.

2006-11-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

For the record I'm a self descibed left-leaning democrat. I'll proudly call myself a liberal and not surprisingly overall I'm pleased with the results from Tuesday's elections. Instead of gloating or sharing my opinions on what the election results mean instead let me share something a good guy I met a few years ago had to say a couple of years ago after the last election.

November 4, 2004

Well guys & gals,

This is it. This is how it feels a day after our efforts and hopes dissipated to the reality of four more years of George W. Bush's America. I say his America, because it certainly is not the America that I enlisted in the Marine Corps to defend. No that was for my America. An America that stood for justice, unity, thoughtfulness, and served as a beacon of light, a shining example to the world of how democracy should work.

So what now? Do we continue to wallow in the mire of depression? Do we allow ourselves to succumb to the feelings of fear and despair over the future of our Party, our ideology, our Nation? I've been searching for answers the past 36 hours. I click on the DNC's homepage and am greeted with only the concession letter Senator Kerry provided for his supporters. Even the ever outspoken Michael Moore has but a photo of George W. compiled with images of the fallen in Iraq. Our so-called liberal pundits are filling the airwaves with talk of reconciliation with the Republicans and the necessity of restructuring our party so as to appeal to "real" Americans. So here we are. Leaderless, without direction. Alone.

Alone? Well that's what the talk shows, AM radio, and the pundits would have you believe. But it seems to me that 56,000,000 of my fellow Americans voted the same way I did on November 2nd. That's nearly 4 million more votes than any Democratic presidential candidate has ever received. Alone? Hardly. 56,000,000 of us chose truth over lies and deception. We chose workers over the exporters of jobs. We chose the middle class and working poor over the wealthiest of the wealthy. We chose choice over the suppression of women. We chose healthcare for all Americans over the profits of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. We chose blood over oil. We chose compassion and intellect over ignorance and stubbornness. We chose PEACE over War! We chose change.

Well, where do we go from here? As powerful as we were, we came up short, true. Do we now lay down and sacrifice our morale convictions to appease the right? Do we scamper off to lick our wounds? Or do we follow the example of the prize fighter that hits the mat, his head aching, ears ringing, face bloodied, but his will remains unbroken, and he climbs back onto his feet to continue the fight?

See, unlike George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, Condoleeza Rice, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, etc., etc., I know a little bit about war. And that knowledge reminds me that one battle does not win a war. Nor does it spell defeat for those that narrowly lost, lest they surrender. And I will not surrender this fight today or any other day. I will not cede OUR America to George W. Bush. We are 56,000,000 strong and OUR ideas are better. They're just plain better. They're worth getting up off of the mat.

God Bless you all and God Bless America!

Sean D. Huze

Marine Corps veteran of the war in Iraq

The only thing I would add is that winning feels better than losing.

We're invisible!

2006-11-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is weird.
individual posts show up, but the main page of In the Schutte House has gone blank. At least from my end.

Possible another Blogger screw up or perhaps I've miswired something on this end. Just because I can fix a refrigerator doesn't mean I can get everything to work all the time!

More later.

I hope.

Okay people was on this end. All is well.

November already?

2006-11-01T21:21:00.000-05:00

Quick note -
Halloween went great, girls made out like bandits and will be on a sugar high for the rest of the week.
Helena informed me today that she has a boyfriend in her class.

apologies for the lack of posts again. I began writing an epic post describing my adventures in refrigeration repair but alas I've gotten hung up on editing and distilling it down to where it takes less time to read than the actual repair took.

If it rains tomorrow I'll post some trick-or-treat pics.

A funny thing happened on the way to school....

2006-10-20T15:52:00.001-05:00

Okay not funny ha ha or for that matter not really funny, gee that's strange but it is something thankfully I don't see everyday and rather than try to come up with a post title more fitting I just went with the first lame cliche line that came to mind.

On the way to picking Helena up from school this afternoon I saw a guy on a motorcycle get hit by a truck. I didn't actually see the impact, but I did see the rider airborne for about five feet.
As is not the case in most truck verses motorcycle accidents, there were not any serious injuries but you look at the pictures and you just shake your head and think...Wow.

They were finishing cleaning up the accident after I got Helena and we both agree that no matter how much they save on gas, or how fun they are to ride and even no matter how safe of a rider you are the fact remains motorcycles and traffic do not mix.

In the column of finding humor in most situations note the sign above the motorcyclist's head. And yes for those of you wondering, my first instict when I say the accident wasn't to rush to aid or even to call for help but rather to grab the camera.
What a guy.

TGiHD!

2006-10-20T06:49:00.000-05:00

Thank Goodness it's Hat Day!
Helena's homework for today was to bring a hat to school because today is hat day.
yeah, hat day.
Who thinks up these things?

Of course Megan had to get in the act as well. 'Little sister see, little sister do' and all.

We've made it through a week without any illnesses, major breakdowns or unusual crises, which explains the light posting for the week. Looks like we'll have a full weekend though with Megan going to her first birthday party with her daycare classmates. Always an event ripe with opportunity...

Equilibrium

2006-10-16T22:03:00.000-05:00

We love us some Netflix here in the Schutte House. With only the chance to go out to the movies once in a blue moon and being too cheap to spring for the movie channels on cable were it not for Netflix we'd be singing along with the girls Disney movies (oh, wait I DO sing along with those Disney movies). And while there is a link here on the blog you can use to sign up with netflix, our praise for the service is sincere and as a way to thank them (in addition to the $18 a month their already getting) I figured occasionally we could share our thoughts on some of the recent movies. Mostly when I can't think of anything else to write.
So with out further ado, here's my review for the movie Equilibium.

The cast was decent, there was some good action sequences and the idea behind the movie was at least as thoughtful as others in the genre but somehow Equilibium completely bombs.
The movie was about as good as your standard late-night cable Sci-Fi show just without the advantage of having commercials to break up the monotony.

Bale does a great job as the stoic hero and convincing kicks butts in the too few action scenes but even out doing the Matrix shoot-out isn't enough to save this movie from the terrible writing and unbearable slowness that pushes Equilibrium into the snooze column.
If you're a Christian Bale fan, the movie isn't too bad to sit through. If you're a action movie freak fast forward to the Gun Kata scenes. If you're in the mood for a decent movie that you likely missed at the theater, you can easily find much better.

She ain't whistling Dixie!

2006-10-16T14:46:00.000-05:00

This morning Helena showed off her newest skill: Whistling.

Now she not able to whistle a tune but it's really whistling. In fact she's better at it than her mother.

What gets me is the fact that I remember when I first learned how to whistle at about the age Helena is now. And if I remember stuff when I was that old than there is no reason to think she won't remember these things. So from now on we have to be real careful. The memories she's making now she'll carry on for the rest of her life and she can use those against us.

Cotton or China?

2006-10-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

Traditional or modern? According to Chicago Public Library the conventional gifts for 2nd anniversary are cotton or china. I'm not sure which would be more appropriate for the blog....

Second Anniversary?!
Wow.
The whole redesign just happens to coincide with us hitting the 2 year mark. Two years ago....
730 days old. 180 posts. Scores of visitors. And like most blogs, nearly devoid of meaningful content. Not that the last two years haven't had a few milestones but judging by the visitor logs the most popular post was not about our trials and tribulations but rather about cooking butternut squash.
Personally my favorite was this one with this post coming in as a close second.

But whether you've stopped by for recipes (hmmm maybe we'll start that weekly feature up again), pictures of the girls or you just love my witty banter thanks for sharing some of the last two years with us.

In the Schutte House 2.0

2006-10-14T12:06:00.000-05:00

Notice anything different?

So I got rid of the "Dr. Seuss" inspired theme and just with a nice clean template.
Oh so much easier on the eyes.

A few more tidbits to work out but this is the new and improved In the Schutte House.
If only remodeling was as easy.

Get up ev'rybody and sing!

2006-10-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

Last weekend my family was in town.
It's a little bigger deal than it sounds. The last time all my siblings were in the same room was well over a decade ago. Not that we purposely avoid each other but over the years we've ended up scattered across the country and finances and time have always ended up as hurdles.

From Family Gather...

But due to apparent alignment of the stars and the generosity of my mom, my brother and 3 sisters and various spouses and offspring were able to have a meal together and snap a few pictures. Also great was the fact that Megan was able to meet four of her cousins for the first time. You can see some more snapshots of the gathering by clicking on the picture. It'll take you over to the Picasa Web album.

For those confused the post title cam from the Sister Sledge song.... And yes you aren't seeing things, I'm posted twice in less than a week. I'm in the middle of the new design changes for the Blog but thought I'd best post something to prove (to myself) that I'm really going to get this another go.

Which Post title will it be...

2006-10-11T20:43:00.000-05:00

To be or not to be.... or Cue the Clash...

I got a notice yesterday that if I didn't update this blog, google was going to take the space away from me.* Apparently they're doing some expansion and need any extra space they can get.

So I actually tossed the idea around for a few minutes - Delete this poor oft ignored blog? Go back to increasing entropy of the blogivese by adding more random tidbits? Just continue to neglect the virtual Schutte House? Put a poll up and let the few stragglers and haphazard wanderers decide?

hmmm...

From Family Gather...

Of course the fact that I'm writing this ought to clue you in that I'll keep the old blog around for a bit to suffer a few slings and arrows of re-tooling over the next few ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ ~~months~~ increments of time. Maybe a new look will rekindle that spark that gets us back into blogging mode. Hopefully the biggest change will be we'll post more often...
heard that one before haven't you?

*of course google is not taking away anyone's abandoned blogs away but the word gullible is not in Webster's dictionary.

really.

Look what I found!

2006-08-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

So I was cleaning up in the attic and ran across this blog.
Wow, blogging... remember that fad? That was so 2005.
But you know I'm a nostalgic kind of guy so I figured I'd go all retro and make a post here-

It's August and in a few weeks Helena will start kindergarten.
She's still a bit uneasy about it. She has some concern that all the other kids will way ahead of her. Turns out she was under the impression that her future classmates were already in Kindergarten, learning to write their ABC's and read books.

With Helena starting school it was decided it'd be best for Megan to get some more kid-on-kid interaction. Let her hang out with more kids, keep her distracted - anything so I won't have to hear "Where Helena?" "Where Helena" "Where Helena" throughout the day.
Yep, she's going into daycare.

~~More time for eating Bonbons and watching soap operas for me!~~
okay, I've been informed I'll be returning to the world of those working stiffs next month.

No full time work however. I'll be here when Helena gets off the school bus and Megan will be home in the afternoons. But those kids are growing up. Starting their journey out of the nest. Next thing you know they'll be going off to college and bringing laundry home on the weekend.
So if Lisa or I seem to be an emotional mess in the next few weeks, you'll understand. Show us some sympathy. And send a few bottles of wine our way.

And don't worry I'm sure we'll be sharing loads of kindergarten/daycare stories with all.

Whoa ho ho - you expected a post?

2006-06-15T19:55:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the once a week post was a little ambitious. But here I am again, doing a little update. As usual, a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Helena has been accepted into one of the traditional elementary schools here (we tried for a year-round, but didn't make the lottery), Easter visit from Bruce, Lois, Rowan and Holly, a good friend, Ed, got married, we visited Tom's brother and my Mom and stepdad, Tom performed a wedding, and my grandfather is getting married.

We have several pictures from the Easter event and also from the wedding/visit with Don and Mary/visit with Micheal. So let's start with Easter. I don't know about anyone else, but Helena and Megan loved it. They loved the baskets, the egg-hunt, and I think most of all, the company. Helena and Holly were almost inseparable. Rowan took over big sister duties for Megan and did a bunch of babysitting (with parents in the house). All of them ran each other ragged - it was absolutely wonderful. Since all of the girls were hanging out together, us adults go to do some talking. For those of you who don't have kids or had them a long time ago, you may not realize/remember how precious adult conversation can be. We got to do some catching up with the whole family, which was great since we have been missing our close friends since they moved away. On to the Easter pictures:

The early morning, Easter day.
Helena (with basket hat) and Holly.

Coloring eggs with Holly and Helena

Rowan making her masterpiece colored egg creations.

Helena's and Holly's eggs.

Rowan's eggs.

Breakfast Easter Day (how could they eat with those baskets of candy sitting in front of them?)

Megan on her first egg hunt.

Holly, on the hunt for eggs.

Helena has spotted one!

Megan with her first lollipop.

Playing in the sandpile.

Well all, be here next time and I'll cover the trip to the mountains.

The Circus Came to Town

2006-04-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

And no, I am not talking about work. That circus is in town all the time!

I am talking about the Cole Brother's Circus. The circus was all part of the larger Wilmington Azalea Festival, which is held here in Wilmington, NC every spring. There are other events, like the 3 hour parade (luckily skipped this year), the street fair (kids not old enough to enjoy this yet), some concerts (Tom and I aren't quite old enough to enjoy these yet), and the horse show (perfect place for Helena to get some horsey time in).

We made the big step this year and decided Helena was ready for the circus. I know that we have said before that Helena can be a little timid, so I wasn't sure how our child that is afraid of heights, loud noises, and people with their faces covered would do watching spider-man ride a motorcycle over a high-wire. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Helena and I along with my friend "Ms. Megan" (not to be confused with pumpkin dirt) got to the show around 4 PM (circus started at 4:30) and walked around the place. They had an elephant outside the big-top which kids could ride ($5 for about 3 times around the circle - which, did you know that they were very gracious about giving out a refund when the child in question has a near hysterical fit?), a face painting booth, and some concessions stands (what do you mean cotton candy is $4?). Before leaving the house, I had told Helena that she would definitely get a "not good for your body snack" and I held up that end of the bargain. In addition to the cotton candy, she also got a powder sugar coated funnel cake (but that she had to share - Yumm!)

Helena noted that cotton candy, "Feels like eating fuzz, but tastes ok." (she did end up eating the whole thing!)

After getting the cotton candy and watching the elephant, we decided it was time to find our seat. We made our way into the big-top. (After we came back, I heard Helena telling Tom, "And now I know why they call it the big top tent. It had a very big top and was a tent") Tom had been kind enough to get us reserved seating so we didn't have to fight the crowd to get 3 seats together.

As for all good sporting events, the circus started with the National Anthem. It was at this point that I wondered if a mistake had been made. Have I noted that Helena really does not like loud noises? To say the music was loud is like saying the ocean is a little wet. The anthem had Helena crouching in her seat, ears covered, and tears flowing. All was not for naught (is that a double negative?), as the tears stopped at the entrance of the first act - a frisbee catching dog (you'll note that the ears were still covered, though).

This is pretty much how Helena spent the entire 2 hour circus.

She held this pose through the frisbee dogs, the first and second trapeez acts, the dancing poodles, and most of the clown acts (including the "strongest clown" act). She, amazingly, didn't scream when Spider-man came out and did a balancing act in the giant spinning circle. However, she added in the hiding of the face in my shoulder when the acrobats were jumping over and limboing under the pole on fire.

Spiderman did this whole act with running around the inside and outside of the metal cage while the whole apparatus spun around. Now, several times he bobbled, once seeming to catch himself just before tumbling over the side while the cage was at the apex. Just part of the act or did we almost see a splat?

Then, the piece de resistance, horses. Nothing can make Helena smile quite like seeing horses and elephants. Strangely enough, whenever these animals made an appearance, the hands came off the ears and her face lit up with wonder. And after all, isn't that what the circus is about?

You can't tell here, but there was a little pony walking under this white horse.

This is Helena during almost any large animal act.

This is Tina, the elephant. She did some amazing stunts including doing a "headstand" on this platform.

After all the fun and excitement, Helena got to come back and tell her Papa all about it - reliving the experience. Even though she says now that she doesn't want to go back next year (because, "Megan isn't old enough to enjoy it yet. Let's wait until she can come, too"), I bet this will become something of a tradition.

Later,
L.

There are three types of people in the world

2006-03-22T12:20:00.000-05:00

Those who can do math and those with those with dyscalculia.

And now in some cases we know why.

Oh, look what you've done to this rock n roll clown

2006-03-21T22:44:00.000-05:00

We got our first digital camera in September '99 and have thousands of photos scattered on a couple of computers, backed up on DVD and even have a few printed out. Unfortuantly we've nevered gone through and labeled (or as those wacky kids say today - tagged) any of them. Sure they're organized by date but you can imagine trying a find a shot of someone just searching through folders based on dates.

If any of this reminds you of yourself take a look at Riya

Sort of a flickr meets face recognition. Still in beta right now, but in one day it has scanned through a couple thousand of our pictures and 1: it's really cool. 2: we have loads of pictures of people I don't recognize.

The title of this post? Of course is a line from Def Leppard's song.....Photograph

Time goes by

2006-03-19T13:52:00.000-05:00

So, we have come to the end of an era. Megan will no longer sit in the "baby" swing; now it is all about "big girl" things. She also wants to have all of the "big girl" options that Helena has been enjoying - like sitting in a chair with no buckle, walking in the stores instead of riding in the cart, going up and down the steps with no help.

As usual, our little one shows little fear when it comes to a new exeprience. She just blithely ignores her mother's fear.

We have also just changed Megan's bed over from a crib to a toddler bed. Megan adores it and Helena is getting a kick out of being able to read Megan stories in bed.

And now some pictures to show what stylin' is all about.

Where does that girl get her sense of style?

Helena likes to help us do many things around the house. She loves being in the kitchen - I can only hope she becomes as good a cook as her father. She also really enjoys the pets. We got this new cat brush and I think she is the only one who has used it. Also, she plays endlessly with them so that they "stay healthy".

And finally, this is what you do with an extremely messy child.

And they say North Carolina is backwards...

2006-03-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

It isn't so much as a ban on abortion in South Dakota, instead think of it as approving coat hangers as medical devices.

Updated Examples of South Dakota thinking about the children....

South Dakota ranks 44th among states in per pupil expenditures.

South Dakota ranks 46th among states in the percent of babies born to mothers who received early prenatal care.

South Dakota ranks last in the nation — 50th out of 50 states — for having the lowest salaries for public school teachers.

South Dakota ranks 5th worst in the country in the total taxable resources spent on public education.

Just as an aside, 34 more weeks until mid-term elections. You know just in case you have an opinion on how things are going.

Weekly Post?

2006-03-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

Well, at least this will be the second post in as many weeks. No guarantee that it will continue.

Last time I covered Helena's birthday and party. Today is really just an excuse to put up some more pictures of our adorable kids.

Aunt Helen reads Megan a story. We had the good fortune to have Helen here for Helena's birthday party. Helen gave Megan so much attention, Tom and I got to dote on Helena.

Helena and her friend Logan at the top of Jungle Rapids' indoor playground.

Megan in her "ladybug" shirt. And yes, that is her natural hair style.

Did you ever wonder what a 30 inch pizza would look like? Well, you now you can stop.

Well, that's it for now. Soon, perhaps Tom will tell you all about the new laptop.

OK, so it has been a long time...

2006-02-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a long time since you have heard from us. But, we needed the break - I mean really, who can come up with this stuff all of the time. Of course, I usually depended on Tom to do just that, but that is neither here nor there.

So, what has been happening in The Schutte House? We have had several items of note. The biggest is that Helena has had another birthday. She had a great and extended birthday celebration. We had some immediate family over to the house on her actual birthday. Helena picked a marble cake with chocolate icing. She wanted a striped cake and told the person in the bakery to make sure that it "has at lease 3 yellow stripes - my sister Megan loves yellow." So thoughtfull that older daughter of ours. Of course, she wanted all sorts of stripes which includes at least those 3 yellow ones, but the baker took it as "she wants 3 yellow stripes on the cake". It was still tastey!

Then, a week later, Helena had a birthday party with her friends. She invited several friends from her old daycare as well as one who used to live across the street. She had the party in a great place called "Power of Play". This place is set up like a huge in-door playhouse. There are several play stations set up to look like a campsite, doctors office, grocery store, restaurant, bank, vets, library, fire station, space station, etc. (thanks to Mike Schutte, the lighting in the place looks great). There is also an indoor playground and a large room for pizza and cake. She had a blast along with her friends.And yes, that was Megan in the middle picture.

There are more things to talk about, but this is a good "getting her feet wet" start.

Later!

Cue Sally Field

2006-01-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

"You missed me, you really, really missed me!"

I had contemplated coming up with an elaborate story explaining my going MIA from the internets but there are times when the truth is so much more entertaining. This isn't one of those times but here's the gist of it:

I've just gotten a bit bored with it.

Of course everyone who has had a blog for more than a week has gone through it- Just going through a spell right now where posting witty bits of our life hasn't been a top priority. I know, I know, when has there every been any wit here? I'm just saving it all up. Pretty soon, I'm gonna post something and you are all just going to spurt milk out your nose it'll be so funny.
or not.

not be so funny that milk... I'm sure I'll get back to the regular posting but it may or may not be really funny... See I'm completely babbling here. Things are returning to normal already.

When dry spells like this came along before I had that AdSense account to sort of motivate me. Not that I was pulling in the big bucks, but it was almost a bit of a game- "ohh, 6 clicks today... let me try posting something completely ridicules and see what ads I get..." A few weeks into December Google e-mailed me and cut me out of the AdSense program "do to fraudulent clicks" I never (purposely) click my own ads but I may have implied to other's that it would be really cool if they clicked on them (especially those ads for Migraine treatments... $4 a click!)
It wasn't like the Adsense was the kids College fund or anything just a way to keep me interested when the same old, same old got a bit dull. But now that's over. No more small change to keep me writing.
Don't get me wrong, I keep the blog not to pimp tales of the family (but you'll note you can still sign up for Netflix here and we do accept donations....). This thing started out and still is a mainly to keep friends and family up to date with the minutia of our life because generally we're too lazy to sit don't and send a letter. Or make a phone call. Or write an e-mail.
I've made a number of what I'd consider friends through blogging. Don't take my break from stopping by your blog lately as anything other than me enjoying some fresh air lately.
That and your writings gotten a bit stale too.

With all said, Helena turns 5 this month and we're having a party in a few weeks. That's bound to provide material to write about for weeks right there...

What the ?!

2005-12-28T23:45:00.000-05:00

Granted I just finished a fictional book about dramatic climate change and I think it's a well known fact that no one really remembers the weather from more than a week ago but things have just gotten pretty weird here.

Christmas Eve/Christmas morning we had a thunderstorm come through. Quite odd. Who has thunderstorms in late December? But unusual weather isn't really all that unusual is it? A freak storm ought to happen once in a while statistically right?

Well we've got another thunderstorm moving through tonight. The thunder woke Helena once already and looks like there is more moving in from the west tonight.

But hey, what better way to end the year that there was a Hurricane Epsilon (as in " In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on." We got to the and so on.)

Ho Ho hmmp

2005-12-28T09:32:00.000-05:00

Well the Christmas holiday is over. Amazingly I wasn't pelted with lumps of coal.
I was a good holiday. The girls had a blast. Lisa's folks stayed with us and we really did have a great time. Now comes the unenviable task of trying to find a place for all the new toys.
Some pictures are in order...

Best line of the day was after Helena opened nearly every present she'd exclaim, "Oh my goodness! This is what I've always wanted! I've wanted this for years!" Half the time it was then followed by "what is this?"

Tomorrow Lisa's cousin Rob comes into town for a visit from the far away land of Raleigh.
That is of course if he can find our e-mail address to ask for directions.

Mysterious booms lead to surge of speculation

2005-12-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

Tim McKinney knows for sure what caused the blasts " the Seneca Guns," he said.

He's heard the mysterious coastal rumblings a thousand times, but never with the intensity he did Tuesday while working on the set of
One Tree Hill in downtown Wilmington.

"That's the strongest I've ever felt it in my life," he said.

Something certainly caused a series of thunderous booms about 4 p.m. that sent some hurrying to call 911 and others looking skyward for answers. Curtis Reeves, who lives near Belville, said he initially feared an explosion at the Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point, near Southport.

"It felt like an earthquake," he said. "It shook every house in this neighborhood."

But officials reported no problems at the ammunition depot or elsewhere. And with nary a cloud in the sky, the booms weren't weather related, said Ron Steve, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

Steve said he spoke to the U.S. Geological Survey, which said there had been no seismic activity in the area. The weather service radar did, however, pick up signs of "chaff" off the coast of New Hanover and Brunswick counties, he said.

Chaff is like metal confetti that military fighters emit to trick radar-seeking missiles, he said. It's possible that jets off the coast broke the sound barrier as part of a military exercise.

The public relations office at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in Havelock was unable to confirm by press time if Marines were on exercises nearby. Some people reported seeing military planes and helicopters flying in the area after the booms.

But McKinney said the sound came from the ground, blaming the mysterious booms that have been reported in the area for centuries. The name, Seneca Guns, comes from a similar phenomenon in New York and Connecticut.

Legend has it that the Seneca Indians are getting their revenge with the guns that Europeans used to displace them.

More scientific explanations say the boom of the guns comes from earthquakes, material falling off the continental shelf, or pockets of hot air exploding like balloons.

More reporting here and here

At first I thought it was someone blaring their stereo obnoxiously loud but it just kept getting louder and louder and louder until the windows were shaking. Helena ran out from her room wondering what the load bangs were and half of the neighborhood was out looking around wondering what the heck the noise was. My guess is sonic booms but who knows. Perhaps I'll have to set up an old computer and mic to record everything for a few years to see if I can figure it out. But then Big Brother might get peeved I'm crowding his business.

In fact, we have fallen off the face the earth.

2005-12-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

Or at least it feels that way.
Ho ho ho. Can the Christmas season be over yet? It isn't that I'm a total scrooge, but the closer we get to the big day the more I find myself saying bah humbug. Were it not for the girls, I'd be content to consider myself a cultural Jehovah's Witness and just forgo the whole thing.
For the past week it's been baking, shopping, decorating, shopping, baking, shopping and shopping.
But enough of my grinchy-ness I just share some of the past week or tow in photos.

Bonus points of captions for the last pic.

Four year old's tough day.

2005-12-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

It has become a near daily ritual for the kids and I to hang out with the neighbors across the street after the mail arrives. Helena and C. are near enough the same age that they have a good time playing and Megan and H. are essential the same age so they act like 17 month old and play around each other.
Yesterday C. had one of his other friends over and the three big kids decided to play chase Mr. Tom. It's great fun and a really good work out. Think I'll make an exercise video out it and sell it for 2 easy payments of $19.99 (of course if you act now I'll drop one of the payments....)
During one of the lulls in play while C. & H. mom was inside grabbing a sweatshirt, I noticed C. was acting a bit down. So I asked what was up. As best I can recall the conversation was as follows:

"What's the matter C.?"
"Oh, nothing, I just had a bad day at school."
"Really, did something happen?"
"School is hard", his visiting friend offered.
"What sort of stuff did you do today?"
"Nothing," C. sighed. "We just did a whole lotta of crap."
"What?"
"We did a lot of crap today."
"What?!" (these are 4 year olds remember and even saying poop is considered risque. I must have stood there for a minute or so slacked jawed and dumbfounded before it hit me.

"Ohhh, crafts. You did a lot of crafts today."

I spent the next five minutes laughing and trying to explain what was so funny without actually explaining what was funny.

Your civic duty

2005-12-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Why would I urge everyone to go vote in the 2005 Weblog Awards? Because one of the nominees links to me. Oh, And he runs a pretty good blog.

So if you've got Flash 7 installed on your computer, go vote for Cynical Dad.

No.

2005-12-03T01:02:00.000-05:00

Every family has one (at least) and in ours it's me. I'm the IT department for the Schutte House. Not complaining, I'm comfortable in my nerdom. XBox is modding, DVD ahem backups, laptop repair attempts... I don't mind. In fact I enjoy it.
And when parents or siblings have issues with their hitech gadgets, I don't mind being called on for help. And I certainly don't mind the occasional requests for assistance in exchange for cash from neighbors or folks at Lisa's lab.

But when you're a former coworker who only calls when your computer is acting up, and I've told you a dozen times to just break down and buy a new machine and you seem dumbfounded when I mention my rates...
Then the answer is No, I will not fix your computer.

Check that 'tude.

2005-12-01T09:14:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I was suffering from a sinus headache. One of those where you can just feel it inching over to migraine territory... (I'm feeling much better now though, thanks)
But I must have been in a pretty nasty mood because I kept hearing Helena ~~talking~~ ~~yelling~~ vociferating at Megan all afternoon on.

Megan! Stop banging your cup!

Megan! Get away from me!

Megan! I don't like you talking so much!

Mind you that was Helena's tone, not mine. Even when suffering the excruciating pain of a throbbing sinus cavity I'm still always pleasant. Really. She must be picking up from Lisa.
Seriously though, it's neat & scary how those kids can pick up on our attitudes.

Stan Berenstain 1923-2005

2005-11-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

Stan Berenstain, co-author of Helena's favorite book series died today. When Lisa mentioned it she asked if the cartoon was still going to be on in the morning. We told her all the books and TV shows he made will still be there but he won't be able to make anything new. I nearly went into an explanation about the whole when someone dies we still have the memories of them but no one said every time you have a teachable moment you have to use it.

Ava Gardner reincarnation?

2005-11-28T09:15:00.000-05:00

I ran across what seems like a pretty neat site where you upload one of your pictures and some fancy face recognition software compares it to the faces of famous people.

It seems Megan and Ava Gardner are a 65% match.

yeah, I'd say they need to do a bit more work. But fun no less. Give it a try. Who does it say you look like? ~~I'll add the rest of our faces later today.~~

edit well I had hoped to check out the rest of our faces but seems the site got real popular and now it just crawls. We'll try again some other time. :(

Sunday night eats.

2005-11-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

Mmmm Thanksgiving leftovers. As long as it's pumpkin pie, we certainly don't mind the leftovers. But what of the extra 8 pounds of turkey that nobody wanted to eat on Thanksgiving day? Surely it will be more appealing days later, right? Anyone?

Personally I was never that big of a turkey fan and tossing a slice between two pieces of bread doesn't make it anymore appetizing. But here's an idea that doesn't sound too bad...

Turkey Ruebens
Arrange slices of turkey, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing between two slices of rye bread. Lightly spread butter on outside of bread. Fry on both sides until cheese melts.

Movie night

2005-11-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

Just a few weeks ago we became one of the last people on Earth to sign up with Netflix*. Not having a TiVo or a dish or a the desire to have a $70+ a month cable bill we finally broke down and joined the seemingly billions of others already addicted to the service.
One complaint, we spent about two days just browsing through the catalog adding movies to our queue. Man, there are a lot of movies out there. One of the things we had in mind was catching up on all the TV series that are now on DVD. Which I'm sure we'll do but Man, there are a lot of movies out there.

This all leads up to one of the movies we got around to watching tonight. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. If you like martial art movies then you'll like the movie. Not as purposefully goofy as Jackie Chan movies but this isn't a film that takes itself too seriously (I hope). The stunt are pretty good and the fights certainly inspire many ohhhs and owwws and apparently Ong-Bak is Thai for elbow to the head.
Be forewarned the movie is subtitled and it ain't no Crouching Tiger. Just a fun evening of Tony Jaa jumping through spools of barbed wire and elbowing bad guys on the head.

*Yes, I've got an ad for Netflix on the left and yes they do compensate me for getting people to sign up to there service. But it's still a fun movie and netflix is cool. Even cooler when they send me a check.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

A little perspective.

2005-11-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

Suffering the idiocy of the mob at the local super market can be trying. And the bias of total strangers can put you on the defensive about your choice in life, but there is nothing like the misfortune of others to make you appreciate how easy you have it.

"I'll just change her diaper and get her back to sleep", I naively thought to myself. Within a few feet of her room, I notice the light has been turned on and there's a distinctive odor in the air, a unique blend of Nathan's Famous All Beef Franks and rotting flesh. I opened the door to the most horrific sight my eyes have displeasure of gazing upon...

Read the rest of Jeff's ~~hilarious~~ pitiful tale here. Remember the story next time it seems you're having a bad day.

Dear stranger at the grocery store,

2005-11-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to write a quick note of thanks to the random stranger at the grocery store. As we passed in the isle you remarked, "Not as easy as it looks, huh?"

Wow, some assumption. Obviously a man shopping with two small kids would have no idea the challenges involved. Its obvious that a man would be overwhelmed with the responsibility of not only caring for kids but shopping as well! It must have been shocking that both the girls seemed happy and healthy. No doubt I must have just bribed them with promises of candy at the check-out counter. Thank you for reminding me to explain to my kids that someone's gender has very little with what they can do and be as an adult. Yes, only boys can grow up and be daddies and only girls can grow up to be mommies, but staying home with kids can be a job for either mommies or daddies.

And while I'm on the subject of grocery stores and on a rant- what is it with people stopping their cart in the very middle of the isle blocking everyone? Do all those colorful cereal boxes dumbfound you and make you forget some common courtesy? Are you too lost in thought deciding between Some Pulp, and No Pulp OJ to notice people trying to get by you? Maybe you're just an idiot. Whatever the reason, would you please just move your cart out of the way.

And on the subject of carts, our local market now has the nifty race car styled carts with room to buckle up two kids. What a phenomenal idea. It works out great for those of us hauling around two kids - or at least it would if you and your one kid didn't take the last one. Hope little Billy's invisible friend is comfortable sitting next to him because I know that bag of potatoes one of my kids is resigned to sit on feels like big ol' pillow.

Ah, I love ~~grocery~~ shopping during the holidays

Our cup overfloweth

2005-11-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day.

It's pouring today. Buckets of rain. Wonderful way to start the week.
When the girls get tired of chasing each other around the house or building towers of blocks and crashing them down or ~~tormenting~~ petting the cats - one of their favorite activities is drawing and painting.
Helena's artwork sometimes looks like it's actually a picture of something, Megan is still very much into the abstract style. They are both prolific artist though. We have stacks and stacks and stacks of their creations on colored construction paper. Our cup overfloweth. We're swimming in pictures. We can't of course throw them away (at least while they're looking) so if anyone would like some original works by the girls, drop us and e-mail and we'll get some out to you.
Never know, they might be collector items one day.....

Sunday night eats.

2005-11-20T22:43:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, that time of year when the nights are long, the mornings are brisk, the trees are nearly bare and football is on TV. Best of all, no one yet has their Christmas decorations out.
It is nearly turkey time so I'd like to share the a real family recipe.

Suenell's Cranberry Salad

1 lb Cranberries chopped in food processor
1 Orange - sliced, seeded and run through the processor (yes orange peel and all)
1 cup chopped apples
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped pecans
1 28oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 large package of Raspberry Jello
1.5 cups of sugar
5 oz tiny marshmallows (optional)

Prepare Jello according to direction on box except use one cup less of water. Mix the sugar into the cranberries. Stir in the apple, celery, and nuts. When the jello is half set add all the other ingredients saving the marshmallows for last. Gently fold in the marshmallows and allow the salad to set over night.

This recipe comes from Lisa's paternal Grandmother (or should I say Grandlady...) Suenell. It was just three years ago last month that she passed away. She was an exceptional lady that I'm sorry I didn't have the opportunity to get to know better. Do yourselves a favor and call up some family member you haven't spoken to in awhile and catch up with them. Family recipes like this one taste so much better when you have some memories to go along with them.

Caption contest

2005-11-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

A thousand and one things come to mind seeing this picture. It is just begging for a good caption. Anyone want to start?

Primetime

2005-11-17T21:21:00.000-05:00

Wow. Both Lisa and I can now say we're graduates of UNC-Wilmington - as seen on TV.

Officials at UNC-Wilmington have contacted students, parents, faculty, staff and alumni about a nationally televised news segment about the murders of two students last year. University spokeswoman Mimi Cunningham says the university didn't want the community to be surprised by the show. Cunningham says school officials also wanted to make sure the community knew about the new programs and safety measures.

We're not going to bother watching the show - two murders, tragic yes but a segment on National TV? Must be a slow news week.

edit: It was just pointed out to me that ABC's Primetime site, no longer has anything about the UNCW story (Anna Nicole had nothing to do with the murders as far as I know). If you are really curious about the story you can read more about it here.

Kids Say the...Well, You Know the Drill

2005-11-17T18:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know that we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about what our kids do, but hey - that is what this whole blog is about (occassional political commentary aside).

So, this evening we noted that the hard freeze that is going to occur tonight will stop the maturation of the peppers we are growing. Then Tom talked a little about how he would love to grow more peppers next year (we got a crop of about 3 peppers from our plants this year). He has this idea of making our own salsa, even though he is not a big fan of the stuff. Helena chimed in with, "Oh yes, then we wouldn't have to get the 'tobacco' sauce for Mom!" Much laughter followed. (For those of you not familiar, I am a big fan of Tobasco Sauce - I could pretty much put in on any food to complete the flavor experience!)

A little while later, as she was playing, she sat down on one of several larger balls that we own. She started bouncing and talking about what kind of "Hip Hop" she was riding (she had received a Hippity Hop last year for Christmas that has a covering to make it look like a horse).

While all this was going on, Megan took that big developmental step of trying to ride on something very, very, very small. I think we have discussed previously how very small children have no sense of their size in comparison to objects around them. Tonight, Megan tried to ride on a toy elephant that stands about 1.5 - 2.0 inches tall. Helena used to try to slide down a toy slide made for toy people that stood about 2 inches. She tried over and over again, just not understanding why it wasn't fun!

Look who's' Talking

2005-11-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

It was several months ago Megan said her first word - "Helena". Of course it came out more like "nay-na" but hey cut her some slack alright. For awhile she picked up a word or so every week that could be understood in her babbling but recently... My goodness! She's talking. Not necessarily clearly, but talking. You can almost see the light clicking on in her head as she grokked that those sounds coming out of her mouth match up to things in the world.

Last night we were sitting around after dinner and Megan brought a book from her room, handed it to Lisa and clear as a bell said "Book!"

We're it not to the teething and the whole not being able to handle when she doesn't get her way and the increasingly stinky diapers this might be the neatest age.

(You'll notice I was vague on the dates of her first words - I checked out Megan's baby book to look up exactly when her first words occurred.... Yeah about that.. Seems someone has forgot to update that thing. Sorry Megan)

Throwing their own words back at them

2005-11-16T21:25:00.000-05:00

(For those disgusted already by everything Washington, you may just want to just visit my archives instead of reading further. Don't worry we'll return to our normal material by morning)

"The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone - but we are not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. We are going to continue throwing their own words back at them."
-Dick Cheney November 16, 2005

Oh, okay Mr. Vice President. Let's talk a moment about politicians losing their memories, shall we?

"I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you [Sen. Edwards] was when you walked on this stage tonight."
-Dick Cheney October 5, 2004

Feburary 1, 2001
"On Feb. 1, 2001, the vice president thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event." [AP, 10/6/04]

"On April 8, 2001, Cheney and Edwards shook hands when they met off-camera during a taping of NBCs Meet the Press, moderator Tim Russert said Wednesday on Today." [AP, 10/6/04]

"On Jan. 8, 2003, the two met when the first-term North Carolina senator accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing-in by Cheney as a North Carolina senator." [AP, 10/6/04]

And of course according to the Congressial record, Mr. Cheney at the time had presided over the Senate twice.

Of course I would not imply the Vice President was being intentially dishonest. Maybe he's just forgetful. Maybe like many in the administration they just misunderstand truth.

A ~~wise~~ man once said "Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me ... you can't get fooled again."

You've got mail!

2005-11-16T17:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the girls and I were across the street playing with the neighbors. The mailman came by and Wren (the neighbor) offhandedly complained, "bills,bills, bills".
So this morning Helena being her empathic self decides she's going to make a "letter" for her so she can have something besides bills. She ~~scribbles~~ writes a quick note on some paper and I help her stuff it into an envelope and I address it and after the mailman came by today we dropped it in their mailbox (yes I know that's a violation of the postal law and I beg the court for mercy).

We returned from the grocery store this afternoon and saw Wren and her kids outside and she came over to give Helena a hug. She said it made her smile and they've got the "note" on the fridge.

Random acts of kindness from a four year old. Yes at times she makes me want to pull my hair out. At times I have to grit my teeth and repeat the mantra, "I love my children no matter what they do". And then there are the times she just makes me glad to be her papa.

Dental Adventure

2005-11-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

This morning Helena and I had our dental appointment. I had some fears - both girls were going with me, Lisa couldn't get away from work to stay with Megan. I checked with the staff earlier this week to see if someone could pull themselves away from filing insurance paper work and hold onto a baby while my teeth were cleaned. This was Helena's second visit for an actual cleaning (she's tagged along with us for the past two years just to get her use to the place) so she was only slightly nervous.

Helena did great. She nearly gagged during the fluoride treatment but stuck it out like a champ. Megan continued to be the adorable child she always is when she's around perfect strangers (I ought to be concerned about her seeming lack of stranger anxiety but today I didn't mind). No cavities for Helena (though the dentist says we will be making an appointment with an orthodontist in the near future (that Amazon link works pretty well for contributions hint hint ). Me another cavity. Seems the hectic life as a stay at home dad gives too many opportunities to neglect my oral hygiene.

Helena Schutte: Entomologist

2005-11-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

Getting ready for bed last night Helena looks out the window and discovered a rather substantial bug on the window. She made some sort of exasperated gasp and went running from the room. Were she all grown up, you'd think she was scared of the thing but thankfully she's still filled with wonder and excitement. She had gone running for her little bug cage. She and Lisa went outside to capture it and they look up what kind of critter it is --

It's tough getting a good picture of something trapped in a Plexiglas cage but we've concluded our little visitor is no other than Acanthocephala terminalis aka a Leaf Footed Bug the only Acanthocephala species occurring north of North Carolina it turns out. We feel honored to find one in our yard, really. They live off of plant juices so Helena is hoping to keep him for a pet but we'll convince her to set it free in a day or so. Otherwise he might end up like the wooly worm she brought home from our trip to the mountains almost a month ago. She's still expected him to start making a cocoon any day now. Haven't had the heart to point out that he hasn't moved in weeks.

Sunday night eats

2005-11-13T23:03:00.000-05:00

Growing up I don't recall eating too many veggies that didn't come out of can. I only recall ever seeing carrots, celery and the occasional bell pepper in the kitchen as a kid. But then before NAFTA were there as many fresh vegetables around at the grocery store? Hmmm...

But no matter. After discovering as an adult that vegetables do taste good (unlike those that encased in steel by the Jolly Green Giant) it surprises me that many other people still shy away from a whole food group. Especially people with small kids. There are veggies out there that are really good for you, widely available and easier to make than a box of Mac & cheese. For example Butternut Squash
I've gotten two request for directions on how to prepare it and it's Sunday so here you go...

Select a squash from the store. Look for one that isn't too narrow at the top and free of obvious blemishes.
Wash the squash.
Slice it in half (top to bottom) with a heavy knife. If you have a sword around that might work too, the stem can be pretty tough.
Scoop the seeds out much like you would a pumpkin and the loose flesh around there.
Put 1/2 cup of water in a dish then place in the two halves of squash - cut side down.
Put it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or so and voila! Spoon it on a plate with a dab of butter and mmmmm That a tasty source of beta-carotene.

For those introducing little ones to solid food butternut squash is great. Mush it up well with a fork and add a little extra water and forget the gerbers.

and we sing....

2005-11-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

hmmm...

Today is the birthday of somebody who Is happy and smiling and right in this room So look all around you and tell me just who Is happy and smiling? My goodness, it's YOU

One stays up all night working on a project and completely lets slip an important occasion...

As most of my birthday wishes are, here is a belated Happy Birthday to my sister Tina who turned 28 (again) on Friday.

Happy Birthday Tina.

Remodeling

2005-11-12T03:50:00.000-05:00

While it may have seemed I had forgotten about the blog, you can now see (dear god, I hope you can see) I've done a bit of remodeling of the site.

At this point there are some significant lag when loading the page. I hope that isn't due to the redesign, cause I really don't want to have to start from scratch. More likely one of my little plug-ins is acting up and grinding everything else to a stand still.

I also note that the text may be too small at this point. Or it's that staying up until 3am has ruined my eyesight. You tell me.

Lastly the design looks slightly different in Internet Explorer than it does in Mozilla/Firefox. That is to say it looks right in Mozilla/Firefox. You ought not use Internet Explorer. Ever.

Of course if you must due to some hateful IT department or a sense of self loathing, just realize that the page looks really cool in Firefox and you aren't cool if you don't use it.

No comment

2005-11-07T08:03:00.000-05:00

While we try do follow the adage moderations in all things, including moderation I did not intend to turn on the option to moderate comments. Kinda doesn't work well when you neglect to enter an address to have the comments sent to before they get approved.
But all is repaired now. Please continue to make fun of us.

Sunday night eats.

2005-11-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, it has been a spell since we shared any recipes. The sad truth is, the three or so we've shared - that's it. All we got. Last week I almost wrote out how to make a bowl of cereal but it was just too depressing. I couldn't remember if the milk went in before the flakes or after!
Okay maybe it isn't that bad but in the kitchen department I have been in a bit of a rut. Using her super ~~psycho~~ psychic powers Sheila "Mimi" Spiro knew I needed some help and sent along the following:

CURRIED PUMPKIN SOUP

2 Med Onions Chopped
2 TB Unsalted Butter
2 Lg Garlic Cloves Minced
1 ½ TB Minced Fresh Ginger Root
2 tsp ground Cumin
1 tsp ground Coriander
1/8 tsp ground Cardamom
1 ½ tsp Salt
¾ tsp hot pepper flakes
2 10 oz cans solid pack Pumpkin (I make this with fresh baked pumpkin to = 3½C)
7 C Water (I prefer chicken stock)
1 ½ C Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
1 14 oz Can Coconut Milk (not the non-fat kind)

GARNISH
¼ C Olive Oil
2 tsp brown mustard seeds (I toast them till they poop in the pan)
8 Fresh Curry Leaves

Cook onions in butter in a heavy soup pot over moderately low heat. They will slowly caramelize but not brown. Add garlic & ginger, cook 5 min. Add Cumin, Coriander, Cardamom stir in till it smells toasty 1 minute. Stir in Salt, red pepper, pumpkin, water, broth, and coconut milk. Simmer uncovered 30 min. Puree in batches to make this soup like velvet. In another pan heat the olive oil and toast the mustard seeds till they pop. Add curry (or sage) leaves for 5 seconds. Add this to top the soup when serving.

Soup can be made a day in advance and re-heated. Soup can be thinned with a little water if needed.

MMmmm. I've got a few items for the grocery list now....

Can I use a lifeline?

2005-11-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

Last month I pointed out the occasional pitfalls of having google's targeted ads. Having advertisements for a new pet after discussing losing a four-legged member of the family is a bit tasteless, but you can understand how Google's computers could make the connection.

I'm not sure James Burke could walk me through how these ads are relevant. (click the picture on the right so you can read it)

Maybe it was too much of the vino.

what a cutey pie!

2005-11-04T23:32:00.000-05:00

Sure her face is a mess and toying with the filters doesn't add anything to the picture but ain't she cute?

Just a quick post to try out google's Picasa2 Blogthis! button. Which works pretty well- if only I could use it to add several pictures to one post...

Asses for assholes?

2005-11-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

I've noticed a few visitors stopping by from Texas and to those folks especially those from the Austin area allow me to pass along this event to pencil in on your calendar:

the 2nd* Austin Mooning of the Klan
Saturday, November 5th
Austin City Hall (or nearby depending on where the police make us stand)
from 1-3PM

More info to be found here.

A toast to your health!

2005-11-04T13:17:00.000-05:00

We've all heard that moderate (there's always a catch isn't there) consumption of wine can be good for you. Some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, even the common cold show some evidence of being prevented by a glass of wine a day. Not that we need any excuse here to enjoy a glass of vino every now and then (wonder if we can get a prescription and have insurance cover the price of a case of wine? hmmm).

It looks like there's another health benefit wine may have-

Compound in wine reduces levels of Alzheimer's disease-causing peptides

A study published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease.

Additional good news is that resveratrol may also be effective in fighting other human amyloid-related diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and prion diseases. Studies by a group at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale in Paris, France have recently shown that resveratrol may protect neurons against amyloid-like polyglutamines, a hallmark of Huntington's disease.

MMmmmm wine, is there anything it can't do?

In the interest of science...

2005-11-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

Before I go any further, I do realize I am a nut. It's a known fact, so we can leave that aside and continue. I'm making a request for information about your urine. Specifically about your urine after eating asparagus or what I'll call Post Asparagus Urine (PAU)
I have mentioned it before - I've never noticed an unusual foul smell after eating the stuff. Being a nerd, I've been doing some research the subject.
Here's what I've learned. It isn't known whether the stench comes from either methanethiol or from S-Methyl Thioesters. Doesn't really matter really. They're both sulfur compounds and it can take as little as fifteen minutes for whichever chemical to make it from the vegetable to your bladder.
The part that has me intrigued is that not only are there others who can't smell the stuff, but some people don't metabolize asparagus the same way and don't produce the smell. So there are two categories:

excretors and non-excretors of the smell
Perceivers and non-perceivers of the smell

It's a genetic trait it seems. Some populations less likely to be perceivers than others. According to Lisa, everyone in our house is a producer of the smell. Megan, of course is too young to let us know if she can tell the difference in PAU. I don't know how reliable Helena's observations are but she says she's able to smell a difference.

So my request to everyone, let me know, are you a excretor or non excretor? Perceiver or non-perceiver. If you don't generally eat asparagus, just go ahead and pick some up at the market. But please don't get the canned stuff, while this is a scientific experiment, I am trying to be humane. If I can get sample of responses (please do not send me your pee) maybe we'll find some correlations with some other traits. But really I'm just curious.

New!! just click and vote!

Another Halloween...

2005-11-01T13:57:00.000-05:00

has come and passed and again we forgot to photograph the girls in their costumes. D'oh!

Helena dressed as a Vaqueros riding a unicorn (We really need a pictures, don't we.) I'm sure I can get her to try the costume on again.

At times, Helena can be a bit on the timid and moody side. Last year we could only get her to stop at three houses before giving up on the trick-or-treating. So last night we weren't sure how she'd do and when at six o'clock she said she didn't want to go - I was expecting a repeat of last year with Lisa carrying Helena upset because some stranger said "hi" to her.
How much difference a year makes.
Megan and I stayed home on candy hand out duty. Helena and the boy across the street went trick-or-treating together with Lisa and the neighbors enjoying the show. Almost 2 hours of trick-or-treating. Almost the whole neighborhood covered. Running up to every house and thanking everyone for the candy (BTW what is it with the Smarties candy?! Does anyone really like those? Helena got like two dozen of them.) There were a few houses with spooky decorations but there were no complaints this year.
Megan also got a real kick out of the evening dropping treats in the bags of all the little monsters and princesses who stopped by. It's tough with the age difference right now. Megan could have gone to a few houses but it isn't like she'd get the candy. And somebody has to stay at dole out the goodies...Maybe next year the both of them will go out together.

But can you guess the outcome of having Helena stay up late and getting way more sugar than her body is use to?

Crashed out on the living room floor at 10am the day after.

sweet dreams Helena

joy #2438 of having two kids

2005-10-31T08:29:00.000-05:00

Megan is so lucky to have a big sister. Not only is it like having a second mother at times but she also gets helps and tips on how to do all those things a 16 month old needs to learn how to do. Just yesterday Helena taught Megan how to crawl under the baby-gate. We keep (or kept) our baby gate raised up about 8 inches so the cats can make it under. Until yesterday, Megan couldn't figure out the whole "ducking your head" thing and we've made it all this time without having to completely baby proof the kitchen.
Helena obviously thought it was time for Megan to learn a new skill.

And now the cats will just have to learn to jump over the darn baby-gate.

Required reading

2005-10-29T20:17:00.000-05:00

It's the weekend I know, and while I admit I haven't felt inspired to post much lately don't think that this is some sort of busy work assignment. I really want everyone who stops by here to follow this link and spend a few minutes reading and exploring the site. It's from an old PBS program but its message certainly needs repeating.

One of the little tidbits I discovered - the sickling cell gene linked to protection from malaria (and the cause of sickle cell anemia) is just as likely to be carried by someone of Greek ancestry as someone Central African ancestry.

Tagged

2005-10-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

I'm it.

AdventureDad tagged me with another one of those popular blog meme lists. Normally I shy away from these things but trying to get back into the swing of things I thought I'd give it a go. So without further ado...

7 Things I want to do before I die.

Not die. I've read enough Kurzweil and similar SF to think I may have a shot at immorality.
Hold my grandkids. If the girls decide to start a family in another 30 years or so.
Run a marathon. There was a time I enjoyed running. Maybe I still do, but my feet hate the after effects
Return to the Big Island of Hawaii. Perhaps the most beautiful place on earth.
~~Write a book~~ Have a book published.
Start my own successful business and be fabulously wealthy
Hike the Appalachian trail

7 Things I cannot do.

stand still while on the phone.
stop songs from popping into my head
smell asparagus pee
schedule well
Just enjoy a stupid TV show/movie rather than pointing out how many plot holes and inconsistency are in it.
Listen to racist comments without calling people on it.
appear organized (whether I'm actually organized or not is questionable, but I certainly don't look it)

7 Things that attract me to the opposite sex:

happiness. Not into the pouting bit.
intelligence. I like it when people make me think.
short hair. For some reason, I've always had a thing for necks
sense of humor
a nice posterior
a libidinous attitude
a pulse

7 Things I say most often:

Megan, no.
Hey Helena....
Lisa, when are you coming home?
ummm...
ask mama
have you seen where I put the....
well....

7 Celebrity crushes:

Charlize Theron
Geena Davis - more a decade ago then now, but I still carry a torch for her.
Téa Leoni
Jessica Alba
Matt Demon (I'm quite comfortable with my hetrosexuality thank-you very much, but were I into guys, Matt is just so dreamy)
Salma Hayek
Tina Fey cute, smart-ass and glasses

7 People I Want To Do This (mostly so they'd update their blogs)

Son of Taeper
Ed
Tina & Mike
Michelle
~~My mother~~ Nevermind, I don't want to know what she find attrative in the opposite sex.
Bruce and Lois
Jimmy, because he's never on gtalk anymore.

there you go. Of course anyone else please feel free to share your list of 7.

And we've got pictures

2005-10-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

Picked out a few photos to share but I've still got dozens to remove the redeye. And once you open up your favorite photoediting software- the hours disappear.
Also trying to catch up on everything I've missed while away. In general, I'm having a hard time getting out of vacation mode. Here are the first batch of pictures to act as filler before I get my fingers warmed up to writing some more.

Megan and her cousin Logan at the Asheville Farmer's Market.

Helena and some jackass.
and Lisa

Helena watching the wedding... what is she thinking?

Megan getting her groove on.

Helena taking a fishing break with Grandpa Don & Grammie

Yep, that's me. Reverend Tom.
(Sherry and Mike, also photoed)

I'm not from West Virginia

2005-10-25T18:47:00.000-05:00

Yet somehow, I still managed to marry my brother during our little vacation.

We have returned to our home after our trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends in the Asheville area. We were just days too early to see the autumn color but still that is some real beautiful country up there.
And, yes, indeed I did marry my brother. What happens in the Appalachians stays in the Appalachians, or something like that.
I did have the honor of officiating the marriage of my brother Mike and his dear wife Sherry. Years ago on a whim, I got ordained through the Universal Life Church and when Mike and Sherry were in the planning stages of their wedding I volunteered my services (after checking to make sure it was completely legal). I didn't get to do my impersonation of The Impressive Clergyman or dress like a pirate during the ceremony but it went well regardless.

Tomorrow I'll share photos from our trip but for now, I need to catch up on some high speed internet surfing then some sleep.

They learn so quick

2005-10-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

Just Sunday I was congratulating Megan on how she was now aware of what was going in the diaper department. The first step of potty training...
Well today we realized she started another very important skill.

That child can lie.

We've made our first stop on our little vacation and of course the girls are thrilled to be out of the car. Megan is running around looking at the new surroundings and as she passed by Lisa it became apparent that Megan had made a deposit. So Lisa asks her , "Did you make poop?"
Megan looks up and begins to nod then starts shaking her head no and continues running laps. She didn't want us to interrupt her play so she lied to us.
I'm so proud of her. Sure potty training is great but being deceptive- now that's a milestone.

We're off!

2005-10-19T08:38:00.000-05:00

Heading to the mountains for my brother's wedding. hope to be able to give some updates while we're gone but the in laws only have dial-up so....

More soon.

Success

2005-10-18T12:48:00.000-05:00

Another achievement for In the Schutte House? I can say I've been active as this place has developed. There is plenty of evidence that the experience has had an impact on me as an individual and being involved in the planning of it all has been, if nothing, else a transferable skill.

Of course none of that made any sense whatsoever, but wouldn't you hire me after hearing that?

What do you mean? I used all ten of the magic words?!

Dear Megan

2005-10-16T19:39:00.000-05:00

In your nearly sixteen months in this world you've reached so many milestones. Sleeping through the night, holding your head up by yourself, learning to crawl, tasting solid food, the first almost understandable words you spoke and your first steps. We have been so proud of every one of your accomplishments even though with each one we can see that our little baby is growing up. We can see when you watch and study (and idolize) your sister how you are desperate to be able to do more, but soon enough you'll be riding a bike and skipping down the hallway and sitting in a big chair at dinner. I know it's hard, but trust us - those milestones will be coming all too soon.

But today I want to congratulate you for starting on what may be one of your most important journeys. You see you are now on your way down that magically transforming path of potty training. It will still be many long months and maybe years and hundreds of diapers before you master this so important task but like those first faltering steps before one learns to run, you have started.

You can now tell when you've made poop.

It is such a joy, isn't it? No more suffering the indignities of having us check your backside to locate offending odors. Now we can simply ask, "Megan did you make poop?" and you, you our little baby understand enough of the English language and her own body to cheerfully nod your head and race to the changing table or shake your head and continue and play.

It will only be a short matter of time before you'll be able to tell when you are in the act and soon after you'll get to the important step of noticing before it happens. After that it's pretty much just fine tuning the mechanics of the deed.
It will still be awhile before you get introduced to the potty but you might notice now and then the odd smile Mama & Papa have when we change you. We know soon we'll be buying pull-ups and singing "Potty all the time" and discovering the restroom in every business establishment we go near.

So again congratulations Megan.

A year?

2005-10-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

Last year at this time we started this blog.
How the time flies!

Remember when it was okay to let helium balloons go and you didn't worry about choking a sea turtle somewhere? And the school project where you'd attach a note card with your address and see how far it'd go and if someone would write back? I've been keeping track of visitors to the site and you know it's kinda cool. We've had well over 3000 visitors to this blog since I started keeping track a few months ago. Fricking amazing huh? Of course before the days of word verification I'm sure we had a thousand spammers here- and our special visitor from earlier this week
I'm glad we've been able to share the past year of our lives with everyone and hope you'll stick with us for another year.

I thought I'd toss in some older pictures and a few that just never made it into any posts this weekend.

Helena's first day.
Uncle Jim & other Uncle Jim with Helena

Us in Hawaii before we became Mama & Papa

that's it for now. Will try to toss in a few more and again to all the friends and family, old and new, thanks for sticking with us.

more pictures!

Halloween 2002
Getting the hang of chopsticks

Megan & 'GG' Polly

Megan walking in Mama's shoes

Helena walking in Mama's shoes

Who is that knocking on our door?

2005-10-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of In the Schutte House. I prewrote a little post thanking all the visitors we get from around the world to our little home on the internet. Even though it's a day early I wanted to thank a particular visitor. First you'll all have to follow along for a moment.

During some of my spare moments I do some reading at other blogs. Many are the personal musings and daily trials like this one but I do enjoy the news oriented sites as well. Lately one of favorites has been AmericaBlog.

Yesterday there was a post about Bush's poll numbers and terror alerts. I won't summarize it here, it'd be quicker just to click on over. I commented on the story- here's what I wrote (though if you didn't read the story it doesn't make as much sense)

So tomorrow we can all expect a 'major' bird flu story, right?

Somewhere there was a graph of Bush's poll numbers and terror alerts. It would be comical how obvious it is, except for getting away with it for so long.
Tom | Homepage | 10.13.05 - 2:12 pm | #

Like many bloggers I keep an eye on the logs of who stops by. It's sort of like attaching a self addressed postcard to the balloon back when we were kids. It's fun to see where people are coming from. To make a long story, well - long, my special visitor followed that link here to check out the Schutte House. Let me share what I know of that someone:

HostName : n005.dhs.gov
IP : 63.162.143.5
Last Visit : New
ISP: DEPTHOMELANDSECURITY
Country: UNITED STATES
Region/State: WASHINGTON DC
City: WASHINGTON
Domain: United States
Language: English US
Browser: Netscape [Win XP]
Screen Res: 1024x768 4 Billion colors (32 bit)
Javascript: Enabled
Page Views: 1
Daily Visits: 1
Visit Length: 0 minute(s) 0 second
Entry Page: In the Schutte House
Exit Page: In the Schutte House
Referring URL: http://www.haloscan.com/comments.php?user=katsiva&comment=112919163181292012

Department of Homeland Security! Color me a little surprised. Now maybe someone during their lunch break is surfing along at work, just like many folks. Maybe it's a prank and someone has spoofed an IP address. Maybe the government has spiders crawling through the internet checking out for threats. I really don't know. Let me just say thanks for stopping by!

Just in case anyone worries we are planning a trip next week (not to Cuba). So if you don't hear from us for a few days don't panic-
quite yet.

update: I sent the John Aravosis from Americablog my story and got the following response:

That's interesting. The thing is, we're a pretty big blog now, so a lot of us folks read us. DHS could have been reading the top blogs to see what people are saying about the bird flu, to keep up on the PR side of things. Or it could have been someone in DHS who's a fan of the blog. While I think Bush is destroying the country, I would not yet worry about them tracking down people who post comments on blogs. If they tried that shit - assuming you don't post comments that include threats, and you did not - the shit would hit the fan. So fret not - at most, consider it a compliment. :-)

Now I'm not say the shit has hit the fan but I'm not the only one who has DHS snooping around.

Dinner time

2005-10-12T21:33:00.000-05:00

AdventureDad had a wrote ~~today~~ recently (he's in Sweden so I'm certain that by the time I post this it's tomorrow there) about the changing views on what to feed a baby. Seems some doctors are now saying it's quite alright to walk right past the baby food isle at the grocery store and just feed your youngster real food.
Glad to know. That's what we did. Yes both girls got some baby cereal in their diet - the stuff is like powdered vitamins, just wanted to make sure they got everything they needed. But most of what they got was what we ate, just a bit mushier. According to these docs unless there is a family history of food allergies you don't have to wait forever on the peanut butter and shellfish (please not together though, yuck)

But with that said, there is another important aspect to eating that everyone likely already knew but it nice to see research back it up- eating meals as a family is good for kids.

Shocking, I know.
The research focused on older kids but they came to the conclusion that families that ate together and had dinner conversation ended up with higher self esteem and a better sense of self control.

For us it sometimes seems like it would be great for the grown-ups to be able to enjoy a relaxing dinner in relative peace and quiet and free of flying food. It's obvious though that a relaxing life isn't that important. We did decide to become parents.

Mission Impossible (?)

2005-10-11T12:30:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon, readers.

When Helena was born we learned from many parents to make sure we had duplicates of whatever plush toy she grew attached to. When she was a few months old we found she took a liking to her 'bear' and so we made sure we picked up half a dozen so we could rotate them around, wash them and always had a backup.

When Megan was just about 3 months old we thought her favorite was her little blue dolly. So we grabbed a few spares. Unfortunately since that time she has changed her mind as to what her favorite snuggly is.

My sister Tina sent us an adorable little carters bunny rabbit. It's soft and silky and just right for little hands. It isn't surprising that Megan has grown extremely fond of it - especially since we only have one.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to find where we can find backups of this toy. Close will not do. Fifteen month-olds are quite good at spotting fakes. Should you require additional photographs contact us and they will be supplied.

As always, should you or any of your I. M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This post will self destruct in 5 days.

About time.

2005-10-10T20:55:00.000-05:00

The cool thing about Megan finally reaching the 20 lb mark?

We can turn her carseat around now.

And just in time. In a real short time we'll be going on a road trip. Megan will actually be able to see where we're going! Of course that mean it won't be long before we hear "Are we there yet?" in stereo.

Sunday Night Eats

2005-10-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

I said before that I enjoy cooking. There are times however that with the wee ones about that meals must be on the simple side. Ah, who am I trying to kid? I make simple meals because I'm lazy at heart. If I didn't enjoy eating good food I'd likely live off of Ramen noodles and pot pies.
But even with my otiose nature, we do occasionally make some fairly complex and time consuming dishes here.

This is not one of them.

Black Beans and Rice

1 15 ounce can of Goya Black beans
1 cup of uncooked brown rice
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup of water
3 cups of fresh broccoli
½ cupish of shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Add rice, broth and water to pot and bring it to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat to simmer for just under an hour.
Wait 10 minutes. Empty can of black beans in a second pot. Season with cumin, touch of garlic, maybe some bacon bits. Cover and heat on low side of medium.
Chase the kids around for 20-30 minutes.
Cut broccoli into florets and steam for 5-10 minutes depending on how you like you greens.
Turn off everything on the stove (this is the step I forget often)
In a large bowl dish out rice topped with beans and put some broccoli on the side. Top it all off with cheese. Serve with a cup of milk or a bottle of beer and a goofy look on you face and enjoy!

So it begins

2005-10-09T09:22:00.000-05:00

7:45 this morning
Helena sitting on the couch. Megan trying to get her to play.

"Papa! She's touching me!"

I'm sure this is just a phase. This sibling bickering won't last more than what, another 15 years.
joy.

Helena's words of Wisdom

2005-10-08T13:41:00.000-05:00

We're getting ready to pack up and go to Grandma's house and I was pouring a couple of cups of milk to take along. Megan's still drinking whole milk, Helena and the rest of us stick with the weak 1% stuff.

Helena asks how we'll be able to tell whose cup is whose when we get there.

"You'll just have to remember that you have the purple cup, sweetie."

"oh." she replies but you can tell the wheels are spinning.
A moment later she adds, "You know a good idea if you have two kids is to write the name of one of the kids on a cup."

"Yep that's right, we could do that."

"But that wouldn't be so easy for the seven dwarves."

Lisa and I start laughing then Helena recommended we add that to "In the Goofy House."
HA!
She has us pegged.

Caption contest

2005-10-07T11:53:00.000-05:00

We've had like half a foot of rain in the past 2 days. And while we aren't trapped inside like we were last month with the storm, it's obvious that the weather is taking a toll on the sanity of some members of the household.
With that in mind, anyone care to write a caption for this picture?

15 month check-up

2005-10-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

Megan had her 15 month wellness check up this afternoon.
For those playing along with the fantasy baby league her are her current stats:

Weight 20lbs 6 oz
Length 30.25 inches
Head circumference 46 cm

She's a perfectly healthy, happy and while on the small size she's growing just fine. The pediatrician office provides a nice little list of what you might see at this age and I can say our little one seems to have the bases covered.

Daily Activities
Avidly explores everything. check
Revels in water play. check
Likes to feed self. double check
Begins to use more objects conventionally (for example, may put comb in hair). check
Enjoys throwing, rolling, pushing, pulling toys. check
Motor Skills
Stands unsupported. check
Walks without assistance with wide stance and outstretched arms. check, even without the outstretched arms
Climbs stairs with assistance. check, but really uneasy about going down stairs
Refines grasp. check, yeah she likes pulling my leg hair. Ouch
Picks up objects from a standing position. check
Language Development
Adds gestures to speech. more like adding speech to gestures but check
Prefers adults to other children. Other than Helena, check
Likes to watch and imitate activities. check much to Helena's displeasure at times.
Cognitive Development (Thinking and Learning)
Looks to parent for help in solving problems. check
Learns cause-effect relationship (repeats enjoyable actions). check, look I can be done with dinner when I start throwing my food!
Looks for hidden objects in last place seen. check
Begins to experiment through trial and error. check.

We also decided to go ahead at get her the flu vaccine. Sure she's not as much at risk being at home but who knows what nasty germs and viruses she'll come in contact with when we go to the wedding in a few weeks. I mean come on it's my brother's wedding.

Cheese

2005-10-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

That's me, the Birthday Boy. Scary thing is this was taken before any bottles of wine were opened.

Thanks to Heather, Jimmy & Megan for sharing the celebratory evening with us and for the cool monster teeth and balloons and toys.

And thanks everyone for the calls and cards and comments of birthday wishes. Had I'd known I get such a response I would have started my wishlist sooner. So next year....

And yes, the cheesecake was delicious.

A word from our heartless sponsers

2005-10-05T13:51:00.000-05:00

I don't believe I'm violating any of Google's rules bringing this up but, did anyone notice the ads near the bottom of the page? (of course I'm sure they'll change as soon as I post this)
Yes, we lost a dear cat over the weekend. No, we aren't in the market for a new one at this time, thank-you though advertiser.

Oh, the joys of targeted ads.

Oh, and it's my birthday.
37? I'm almost old.

Kids Say the Darndest Things (Take II)

2005-10-04T18:41:00.000-05:00

Yep, sometimes it is just a laugh riot here at the Schutte house. You just never know what those kids will come up with - usually while your mouth is full of some splortable liquid!

Helena comes up with zingers at the least expected moment. Take the other night at dinner. We are all sitting around the dinner table, finishing up some red chicken and asparagus. Tom is casually singing "This is the dawning of the Age of Asparagus, the age of Asparagus..." to Megan when Helena turns toward me and notes in the most casual of voices, "Mom, your husband is a goof!".

Now I have to say I got lucky; I was drinking bubbly water (a.k.a. Seltzer Water) with my dinner and I was just lifting up the glass to have another sip. Have you ever splorted soda (that's pop to our northern neighbors, coke to our NC mountain visitors)? I mean, about the only thing worse to splort is beer - the nose is just not made to handle carbonated, alcoholic expulsions.

(Some other recent sayings:
"I am naming my pet cock-roach (don't ask) Cock - isn't that a great name?"
And during a discussion about pizza delivery companies, "And we have Domino's in our belly!" talking about the muscles.)

A simple dinner out

2005-10-03T12:07:00.000-05:00

Last night we decided to go out for dinner. Lisa wanted a few books from Barnes & Noble and understandably we were all in the mood for a change of pace. One of the restaurants near the bookstore is Red Robin. It's a decent enough place. Little overpriced for a burger in my opinion, but the beer was cold and they do serve medium rare hamburgers (which I thought was a no-no now but I won't complain). It took a little persuasion for Helena - she's freaked by the giant bird-suited guy who greets the kids occasionally. I'd wager nearly all kids are terrified of clowns, animal costumed mascots and the like. You think places would get a clue but that's a different discussion. Thankfully last night the giant bird man wasn't there. Must be some Sabbath thing.

We had an enjoyable meal. Lisa & I have some sort of gourmet hamburger (ohhh, it has barbecue sauce on it!) Helena has the outside of a corndog and a salad and Megan has a bowl of mac & cheese and some cantaloupe. After all but inhaling the melon and a sizable portion of the mac and cheese into her mouth - and around her mouth and in her hair and table and floor - Megan grows bored being cooped up in the highchair. Lisa walks with her to the restroom to get washed up.
I'm watching as they return. Lisa is trailing Megan as she maneuvers by the tables and chairs. So many distractions for a 15 month old but she waddles along as onlookers admired the thing of cuteness she is. I must of turned for a moment to say something to Helena or taken a sip of my drink because the next thing I know. Lisa is awkwardly holding Megan over a large pile of orange vomit calling for me to give her a hand. Right in the high traffic area between the exit from the kitchen and the path to the restroom the slightly digested remains of Megan's dinner.
How pleasant.
Especially for the folks at the table right next to where it happened.
Needless to say we were quite embarrassed and left an ample tip.
In true form for a 'family friendly' restaurant the hostess offered Lisa a small cup of ginger ale to help settle Megan's stomach.

Note, sorry for the lack of weekly recipe. Provided that we make it through this week without any extraordinary circumstances, we will continue that feature on Sunday.

Goodbye Bunny

2005-10-01T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, today has been a sad and tearful day in the Schutte House.

One of our beloved cats, Melange - aka "Bunny" - has been very ill. I beleive Tom posted something yesterday regarding the effluent from this illness. She had been losing weight for several months - weight which she could ill-afford to lose. Bunny was never a big cat - at her heaviest, she weighed a mere 8.4 pounds. We thought we had a chance after getting her on some antibiotics; she started eating again and seemed to perk up a bit. After a week of her looking a little better, we noticed that the weight was starting to come off again. Yesterday Bunny really started to languish. She wouldn't eat or drink and she spent most of the day lying on the back porch.

After a losing battle with some sort of abdominal infection, we decided that the best course of action was to go ahead and put her to sleep today. Tom packed her up into the cat carrier and went by himself to get the job done. I hated to put it on him, but as I had already started to cry when we just talked about it, we thought this might be the best route. For "liability" reasons, Bunny got one last check up. At the time of her death, she weighed a little less than 5 pounds. While I am sad, I really do think this was the best thing. I don't know if she was in pain, but she definitely didn't feel good.

She had the face of a kitten throughout her whole life. I recall trying to find a name for her that would fit her looks and personality. She was such a mixture - calico tabby with both orange and gey tabby - that I decided on the name Melange. One of the things she did as a young cat was chase paper balls. We used to say "Bunny, ball, ball" and then throw the ball; she would run after it, play with it for a few minutes, and then bring it back for us to throw it again. After a while, she would only answer to Bunny. I will remember with fondness the 13 years I spent with her. I hope that in some way we gave her a better life than she could have had elsewhere.

Calendar malfunction

2005-09-30T13:16:00.000-05:00

Everywhere I look it says it should be Friday but I'll be damned if it certainly doesn't seem like it's a Monday. Really is this some hoax going on?

This morning I'm dragging myself out of bed, when Helena calls out in a disgusted voice that she's stepped in something icky in the living room.

Great.

One of our dear cats is ill and has had digestive issues at both ends. So before I can get Megan out of her bed, I gotta clean up some cat mess on the carpet. I suppose I'm lucky it was just puke.

While cleaning that I notice that Baity was listing to one side in his bowl.

Oh great.

So before 7am I have cat barf and a dying fish joining with me to greet the day. So be it. We've certainly gone through worse. I'm not in the best of moods but it's early, we can recover.
In an hour or so after both girls have had their breakfast and I my coffee, we find that with a bit of a water change Baity is showing some signs of recovery (he's doing better than the 'Helena, I think Baity's dead' we started with this morning). Of course I'm finding that I'm having some lower GI issues (sorry for the overshare but it's important for the story). With both girls safely playing I make a quick sojourn to the restroom only to return and find the both of them emptying Megan's clothes drawers. In the past week or so Megan's gotten a good deal of entertainment from opening her PJ draw and taking stuff out. Helena must have seen the good time she was having so she joined in. I can feel my teeth begin to clench and for a moment hold back the urge to scold the both of them for the mess their making- but hey it's just a pile of clothes. They're having a good time. I tell Helena as calmly as I can that she'll have to help me put the clothes away later and I return to the fish bowl to change out a bit more of the water.
In the middle of the process Megan comes running up next to me and I'm hit with the telltale signs of some seriously nasty smelling poop. Really nasty. Given my condition, sure it makes sense. But the quick visual confirmation that parents understand shows no sign of poop in the diaper. Where is that smell coming from? Oh, it's not in the diaper, it's in her hand.

Oh that's just super.

Megan not only has cat poop on her hand but also a nice little smear over her eye and a dab on her chin. While cleaning that up Helena wants to know and keeps asking and asking; What's wrong with Baity, When is he going to die, When will he get better, How we can make him better and When we can get a new fish? Somewhere the cat has had an accident that at the moment only Megan knows where. And it's not quite 9:30am.

In other news we joined Lisa out for lunch today. Papa needed some time out of the house.

TGiF? Yeah, right.

Wish we had a plan

2005-09-29T11:21:00.000-05:00

So I was reading over at The MisAdventures of a First Time Dad AmateurDad's realization that as a parent you have to start watching your mouth. It seems obvious of course and he's right you never really appreciate what comes out of your mouth until there are little ears around the house. So as new parents he and his wife have a plan for cleaning up their language. That's a good idea. It isn't that our house sounds like you're at a taping of Jerry Springer - but well there are moments and like everyone we have to learn to bite out tongue now and again.

It was a few months back for us that we learned how easily little ones can pick words up. Helena was parading around after a bath with a towel wrapped around her hair. She was doing the super model hair toss and pretending to comb her fingers through the blue towel like long locks.

"Look at my f*cking hair."
"My F*cking blue hair."

Ah, the joy of parenthood. At least she was using the word correctly.

Pocket Change

2005-09-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

You've seen those machines in the grocery store right? You dump your loose change in and it turns it into real money - minus of course the almost 9% cut they Coinstar takes.

It doesn't take too long for two kids to accumulate their own weight in pocket change and the thought of counting and rolling all those pennies, nickels and dimes- ugh. Who wants to do that? But who wants to give away that 9% either?

The folks at Coinstar seem to have hit upon a brilliant idea. Trade your coins in for gift certificate and let the retailer pay the cut. Now I don't see the girls being too keen on lightening the piggy banks for Pier1 or starbuck stuff but Amazon or Hollywood video? Yeah, I can see that happening.

Shame of it is, so far it's only available in a few cities. Over the weekend we let Helena trade out $40 of quarters for a new toy at Target. Of course she couldn't carry 160 quarters in her little purse so we traded them out for folding money. If they turn all the coin counting machines into gift certificate makers, I imagine we'll be getting less at Target and seeing more cool stuff in our mailbox.

Bunch o' photos

2005-09-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

A handful of pictures for everyone. Sorry no witty commentary to go along with them, for the most part they speak for themselves.

Sunday already?

2005-09-25T20:34:00.000-05:00

Time flies by when you're hooked on hurricane coverage. Can this hurricane season be over yet? Please.

It is Sunday and that means not only are the Bengals 3-0 (Bungels? Excuse me? Who?) but it also means another lazy but tasty recipe.

Tom's Red Chicken

3-5 skinned boneless chicken breasts halves
1 cup Ken's Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon Raspberry Jam

Toss the chicken in a gallon size ziplock bag with the jam and vinaigrette. Seal it shut. Shake it around, pound the chicken up a bit, mix it some more and let it sit in the fridge for at least three hours but not more than a day. When it's nearing dinner time heat up the grill to 350°-400° and cook the chicken. It takes about 15 minutes to fully cook (to be honest when I'm grilling rather than use a watch I measure time in beer units so your mileage may vary). A few tips on grilling- don't put the chicken or most anything you're cooking directly over the flame. Rotate the chicken after a quarter of the cooking time 90°, turn it over at the halfway point then rotate it another 90° at the ¾ mark. After you turn the chicken over drizzle some of the remaining marinade on the chicken, remember though it's got raw chicken juice in it so make sure it has some time to cook off.

Serve with baked sweet potato and asparagus and you end up with a meal that's tasty but colorful as well.

We've had requests for more pictures of the girls so tomorrow round lunch time I'll upload a few.

Kids say the darndest things

2005-09-22T20:09:00.000-05:00

As a child grows, everyday brings new adventures and discoveries and challenges. Some of those days the adventures are slightly annoying but still hilarious. Like when your little one finds her way into the bathroom momentarily left unguarded and she discovers the glorious fun of a roll of toilet paper. Some days bring the challenge of comforting a little girl coping through grieving the loss of a goldfish. The effort not to laugh at your child's tantrum. Every parent I imagine has to endure the episode where the little one discovers and is compelled to share with company the wonderment that is their private parts. There are day you can't help but shake your head and laugh and wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?"

I'm still shaking my head right now.

Like some 14% of the U.S. population, Lisa and I consider ourselves non-religious. I've got nothing against religious folks, if fact some of my best friends are religious. Really. Personally I just don't get the whole "Higher Power" stuff. Not a fan of watermelon either, another oddball personal preference of mine. I'm interested in the topic (religion, that is) and curious how it is people come to believe the things they do and I do try to be respectful of others and their ~~wacky~~ heartfelt beliefs. For most of my adult life, it just hasn't been much of an issue.

This evening Helena is playing over at a neighbor’s house...
Can I stop now or should I walk you through the rest?
Okay, I'll go on but you realize taking joy hearing about a four year old stepping into a moral quagmire is just wrong on so many levels. If you're laughing you are not a very good person, you know that.

Helena and her friend are in his house while Lisa and the boy's mother are outside chatting and watching Megan and her little friend. Helena's friend C. (I'll protect the names of the innocent) comes outside to inform his mom of the important news that God and Jesus are not in fact real.

For those who are visiting by the page, let me just remind you we live in the South.

"Where did you hear that C.” asks the neighbor.
"Probably from Helena." Lisa answers matter of factly.
"They are real C." the neighbor reassures and he runs back inside.

Outside the conversation returns to the fact that neither I nor C. Dad can smell the post asparagus urine odor but it isn't long before Lisa has to return home with the girls and the neighbors have to perform some sort of reconsecration ceremony.

Lest you get the impression that while many kids are saying their evening prayers, we're indoctrinating our daughters to proclaim at every corner "There is no god!", let your hearts not be troubled. The few times the conversation has comes up we've tried to answer Helena questions as openly as we could.
Grammie talks about going to church: "What's church Mama?"
"Church is a place where people go to talk and listen and think and learn about God."

At this point you'd expect a next question, right? What's God? Right? No a year ago we got Helena a book called The Children's Book of Myths and Legends full of stories and tales about Zeus, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Thor and Icarus. So she has an idea to go along with the word God, it's just not one the general public is too comfortable with.

Now we've tried to explain to Helena that what Mama and Papa think and believe aren't what everyone else think and believe. And that's okay. In fact we've told Helena that she ought to, when she's older consider those sorts of things and decide for herself what she thinks. We've tried to convey the message she can believe what she believes and her friends can believe what they believe. We are dealing with a four year old though.
So what's a parent to do? I'm not ashamed of my beliefs or lack there of and I think it would be a disservice to my children to pretend to be something I wasn't just to avoid touchy conversations around adults. I don't want my kids growing up learning to keep quiet if they fit in with the rest of the crowd. I don't want them to conform for the sake of conforming but neither do I want them to go out of their way shove their differences in everyone’s faces. Oh, what have we gotten our selves into? And neither is even in school yet!

So I shake my head and wonder what adventures tomorrow will bring.

For those interested

2005-09-21T08:52:00.000-05:00

in attempting to have actual thoughtful political/social/philosophical discussions stop by over at Thingvellir

In 930 AD, while most of Europe was mired in feudalism and conflict, chieftains in Iceland gathered in a natural amphitheater to the north and west of Reykjavik and formed the world's first parliament, the Althing. The meeting place was called Thingvellir ("parliament plains"), and over the next 300 years representatives journeyed here once a year to elect leaders, argue cases, and settle disputes - sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.

There's no promises anything will get settled at the virtual Althing, but not trying something because it might not work always seemed one of the silliest excuses for inaction. Drop by and post a comment or email Bruce the admin of the place for an invite to start your own discussion.

"Does she have a stuttering problem?"

2005-09-20T19:39:00.000-05:00

I just want to remind everyone, House is the best show on television.

I'm certain Fox in it's infinite wisdom will cancel it soon. Enjoy it while you can.

Sunday Night Eats

2005-09-18T20:05:00.000-05:00

One of the many things I really enjoy is cooking. Not quite as much as eating, but I do enjoy the culinary arts. I am generally lazy so the meals I make are often very simple. I also tend to have a short attention span and not really what you'd call a detail oriented person so my dishes are mostly just a vague outline and change a bit every time.

Lisa is the baker in our house. Baking requires strictly following a recipe. One level tablespoon is apparently a precise measurement (who knew?). Cook at 350° for twenty minutes means cook at 350° for twenty minutes. Lisa can do this and she makes some truly wonderful cakes and pies.

That's not my thing though. I'm so much a bit of this, bit of that cook. And, if I say so myself, it works out pretty darn well. Of course if you're dining with us and I'm cooking something new, please tell me what isn't alright about it. Compliments are great and all but tell me how I can make it better okay?

So all of this is leading up to something. Once a week, or until I forget, Sunday night I'll be sharing one of our recipes with everyone. Sharing what's going on in the Schutte house is what we're here for and food is always a popular topic with us. So here we go.

Tom's Mediterraneanan Chili

1 can Goya Black Beans
1 can petite diced tomatoes
8 oz Feta cheese
2 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
½ cup olive oil
½ cup diced Kalamata olives
1 lime

Drain and rinse the black beans, drain the excess liquid from the tomatoes and put them in a bowl, probably a big bowl.
Crumble in the feta cheese.
Add Parmesan cheese - don't be a cheapskate and get Kraft stuff. That's fine on popcorn but come on now this is a meal.
Add the oil and olives.
slice the lime squeeze the juice from one half into the stuff, save the other half.
mix it all together.
cover it up and put it in the fridge for the night (you weren't planning on eating it right away were you?)
Next day squeeze the other half of the lime on the mixture and give it a good stir.
Serve it up wrapped in a tortillas like a burrito or just on the side or on noodles whatever suits you. It goes well with a glass of Shiraz or Merlot but then again what doesn't?

So blog-kin and friends next Sunday share one of your recipes or if you like post one in the comments below.
Happy eating.

The Next Day

2005-09-16T20:03:00.000-05:00

So, the girls stay up until 11 PM and still get up and ready to go by 7 AM? Impossible, you say...nay, says I. There they are, bouncing down the steps mere minutes after I get out of bed. "What would you like for breakfast?" I mumble (bear in mind I have not yet had time to brew the elixer of life).

"I like blueberry muffins," says Anna
"Yeah, me too," says Helena. "Let's make some muffins!"
"How about pancakes?" says I
"Yey! Pancakes with syrup!" (little voice in the background saying "Am I sure sugar is the right way to go here...What the heck")

So, after pancakes we pack up all the girls and take the trek to the NC Aquarium. To say the girls were excited would be like saying the sun is warm. The chatter from the back of the van was astounding. Both girls talking about what they would see, what they were going to see first, and what they were going to eat at the snack shop. Remember - synchronized monologues.

Tom and I decided early on at the aquarium that the girls needed to hold hands - it was way too hard keeping track of two 4-year olds running from exhibit to exhibit, not willing to spend more than 10 seconds looking into each tank. Megan had more patience - or maybe that was fear of being eaten...

The girls quickly went through the marsh/wetland exhibit and moved onto the coastal area. Crabs, touch-tank (which strangely enough Helena does not like - I think she doesn't like getting her hands dirty and wet - and some of those things are slimey!), and sea-horses.

Then they moved onto the deeper water tanks: jelly-fish, sharks, eels, and octopi. Helena says her favorite was "everything. But I would want to see the octopus first." We got to see the divers when they got into the big tank (don't remember how many gallons, but the glass is 8 inches thick to hold in the water). Megan again had the most patience, and she was the only one to get up close with the divers. Helena sat on my lap, Megan wandered about in front of the big tank, and Anna and Tom went exploring while the divers were diving. Pretty much, when the divers came out, it was time to go!.

It was adorable - 3 tired little girls riding in the van. First, Megan dropped off, then Helena, and then Anna. All snoozing on the trip home. Woulda taken a picture, but, well, we didn't want to chance waking them up.

After getting home, we had a quick lunch and then, re-energized, the girls went back outside. Helena finallly got to play with Anna's stable and Anna played on the playhouse with the larger horses.

I think both the girls had a good time. I needed a nap.

Lisa

Friday Night

2005-09-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

Friday night Lisa and I, lacking full use of our mental faculties, decided to let Helena have her friend Anna stay over. It was actually decided a week in advance but I suppose we both kept expecting the other to come to their senses. Note to self, be a man and have the guts to chicken out! Like our own two aren't enough to run me around in circles during the week - lets have another four year old with an infinite amount of energy hang out with us? We are insane.

Okay it wasn't really that bad - and if Anna's folks are reading, it wasn't bad at all but after days of hurricane postings I just feel the need to be dramatic okay?

Helena had been counting the days all week long. Everything she did was in preparation for Anna's stay. I'm going to draw a picture for Anna. I'm going to pet the cats so they're not afraid when Anna gets here. I'm going to catch a spider to show to Anna. I'm going to pick out some books for Anna. I'm going to chatter and chatter and chatter endlessly so your brain is numb before Anna gets here. It really was like that. For days.

Funniest was the phone call a few days before she came over. Helena wanted to ask Anna to bring over a particular toy and if she was afraid of spiders (yeah, she did catch a pet spider and wanted to make sure Anna wasn't afraid of them). Have you ever listen to 4 year olds talk to each other? Often it's more like synchronized monologues. At least with face to face conversations they can wave their arms around to get each others attention but on the phone...If I had taped it we'd be in the running for AFV. To add to the confusion Anna was apparently taking a bath at the time. From our side the conversation sounded like this:

Hi Anna!
(pause)
Anna can you bring your pony stable over Friday?
(pause)
Can you bring your pony stable over Friday?
(pause)
Anna.... Can you bring your pony stable over Friday?
(pause, laughter in the background)
Anna... Are you afraid of spiders?
(pause)
No I'm not taking a bath.
(pause)
Anna, can you bring your pony stable over Friday?

It went on for 5 minutes. Eventually we had to teach Helena how to end a 'conversation'.
You get an idea the level of excitement Helena had built up for this sleepover. You could almost hear the ominous music playing as the time for Anna to arrive drew nearer.

Friday evening Anna shows up with her Mom, nice easy drop off. It's funny, when kids are real small and you drop them off somewhere it rips you up when they break down in tears as you leave. They get a little older and you can hardly get their attention to say bye- tears you up then too.

We order pizza and before they sit down to eat and watch a movie (Charlotte's Web was the feature for the night-yes we have an arachnophilic daughter) I suggest the girls play outside while we wait for it to be delivered. Running and swinging we thought would burn up a bit of the energy.

I mentioned the limitless energy of a pair of four year olds. I was going to explain it using the example of super conductors and the electron pairs but picture are a bit more entertaining.

Pizza gets her. Girls go inside. Movie starts - though somehow at first playing French - and Anna and Helena are quiet for nearly an hour and a half. Megan goes to bed. Movie's over and Lisa bakes some cookies.

I'd be amiss if I forgot to describe how Megan was handling the adventures of having two 'big' kids in the house. For about half a millisecond there was a shadow of uncertainly whether this other kid was okay as far a Megan was concerned- but just a millisencond. That phase that baby's go through where they're afraid of strangers, never happened with Megan. Gonna be a big problem I'm sure as she gets older but for now it's just cute. Anna got a real kick out of it as well. Normally she's the baby sister at home. Here she got to a chance to be the big sister.

About eight o'clock, time for PJs and teeth brushing. The girls have decided with a little encouragement to sleep upstairs in the guest room. We lay the law down- No jumping on the beds, no screaming and acting wild- you can stay up and talk and 'read' as long as you like but remember in the morning we're going to the aquarium so try and get plenty of rest.

Eight thirty; Keep it down girls, do NOT wake Megan.
Nine o'clock; No you can't bring any toys into the room.
Nine thirty; Yes, you can go to the bathroom, but you both don't have to go in at the same time.
Ten o'clock; No more books, you're being too loud.
Ten thirty; if I have to tell you to be quiet again, you'll sleep in different rooms.
Eleven o'clock; No more music. Go to sleep, Mom and I are going to bed now, so don't bother calling for us.

So we're assuming they fell asleep before 11:30 but we really aren't sure.
Tomorrow I'll post the adventure of the aquarium, but just to let you know, they did take heed of at least one thing I told them the night before. They remembered the aquarium trip in the morning. They were up and dressed before 7am.

Storm photos

2005-09-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

The first picture is out of our front window during the worst of the storm yesterday.
Not all that bad. As I said before that little pecan tree is now missing 1/3 of it's leaves but it will recover.

We went on a short walk this morning to survey the damage. Couldn't come up with much. We saw a few broken tree limbs and pine straw carpeting the road. The neighborhood next to ours had some flooding during the storm but it's now cleared.

If you really, need to see some pictures our local TV stations have some here
and here.

So until the next storm that's all the hurricane coverage. Later today (hopefully) I'll share photos and tales from Helena's sleepover last weekend.

That's a wrap.

2005-09-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Ophelia has left the area.

Our freezers is full of ice and we have loads of non-perishable snacks. The lights stayed on through the whole storm, we lost cable (and internet) for a bit, including a spell this afternoon. The house is -without close inspection- just fine as are we. We got at least 7 inches of rain and we'll get a little more tonight. Officially Wilmington never got hurricane force winds and by the looks of everything I certainly believe it.

For tonight that's it. We're all okay.
Tomorrow after the girls and I enjoy some time in the sunshine (Lisa has to return to work) I'll upload a few pictures from the day. Who knows maybe I'll be able to tell you all about the fun we had during the weekend with Helena friend Anna staying over. I'll be glad to finish with the hurricane coverage.

night all.

I think we're in the thick of it

2005-09-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

The winds are starting to shift now - maybe right out of the north or a bit east of that. The eye of the storm looks like just off shore of us right now. Power amazingly has stayed on through it all - give or take a few flickers. The local tv stations are showing photos of damage around the area. Some trees and power lines down in town. The beaches are having a tough time of it. North Topsail Beach has some homes getting surf washing underneath them and the some of the sand dunes at Wrightsville Beach are gone. Holden Beach has gotten 14 inches of rain. Luckily it's close to low tide right now.

Here at the house the rain is still coming down in sheets and the winds are as strong as they have been all day. Everything is holding up, I had a chance to run around the house to look at the roof and all is AOK. Our little pecan tree in the front yard has lost at least half of it's leaves but no trees have fallen anywhere in our neighorhood.

If everything keeps going like this I'll have to figure out what to cook for dinner instead of PP&J I thought we'd be having!

Still Hanging On

2005-09-14T08:41:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are at about 9:45 am. The winds are still picking up - we are now up to about 54 mph winds with gusts to 66 mph. We have, of course, gone outside (once was to rescue the birdhouse we forgot in the tree).

The worst is supposed to be from about 11 to 12 today (newest update shows hurricane force winds through 3 PM). The power continues to flicker, cable went out for about 20 minutes, and the pressure differential has managed to blow one of our attic doors open.

Helena and Megan are already going stir-crazy. We are trying to get them to play together - Megan is currently doing the Robot. She has been saying "uh-oh ascedio" whenever the winds blow the rain hard against the windows. Helena wants to go outside and swing - umm, yeah, thinking that may have to wait.

Will keep this updated as we can.

Lisa

Good Morning

2005-09-14T06:26:00.000-05:00

A bit of a breezy morning....

Okay, it's more than that-the trees are whipping around, the power has flickered out a couple of times and the rain is continues. The news reported the local hospital is running on generator power. Sustained winds at the beach (a about 5 miles from our place) are 40+ mph.

After watch the Sesame Street Hurricane special the other day Helena knows how to get ready for a storm. She's insisting we get some candles ready-nevermind the fact that it's morning.

Lisa's company decided at 5 this morning to stay closed today. We've made a pot of coffee and got everyone a nice hot breakfast. I'm guess the power will go out sometime in the next hour or so. If it doesn't I'll post some more later. While the center of the storm is now forecasted to stay just offshore, looks like we'll be in this mess for the next 12 hours or so.

D'oh! Power's still on-but the cable is out! Wonder if this post will get out. Guess so.