New Year's Eve Play

On this New Year's Eve, we let the kids enjoy the day by taking them to Out Of This World Pizza & Play, an indoor play area with lots of indoor play structures for kids to play in and on. They played for hours until we left for dinner. With the kids playing so hard, they'll probably fall asleep quickly tonight, and it'll be left to me and my wife to watch the New Year Ball drop down for the countdown to the new year.

Panda Food

When it comes to getting a quick bite to eat, I like Panda Express. They usually get you through the line quickly, and they have a wider selection of healthy food than hamburger fast-food joints because their dishes include vegetables along with chicken and beef and other food items.

Snow Day

It snowed a lot today and it was fun to watch. But it got scary when my wife had to drive our daughter to swim practice. The drive to practice was manageable, but the drive back was near impossible. A relatively short trip turned into a four-hour inch-by-inch slog through the snow and congestion. Abandoned cars were everywhere. But my wife and daughter got back safely and so all's well that ends well.

Hollywood

We enjoyed a George Clooney movie today. He is a big star who has been around for a long time in film and television. My wife told me he did some stints with television shows including Roseanne and later ER. I suppose it takes a while to "make it" in Hollywood and that probably most Hollywood stars have humble beginnings in the film and television industry.

Home-Made Food

Home-cooked stuff tastes great. I just added home-made meatballs (that included carrots and other ingredients cooked by relatives) to our spaghetti dinner and it tasted great. For dessert, we ate home-made bread pudding made by a friend and it also tasted great. We also tried home-made sweet potato pie and, of course, it was great.

Still Christmas

Today is the day after Christmas, and we're still in the Christmas spirit. We're still listening to Christmas songs, and we went out for dinner at a nice affordable family restaurant. We enjoy Christmas festivities and the love and sharing that goes with the Christmas season.

Christmas Day

DEC. 25 (FRIDAY)-CHRISTMAS:
Merry Christmas to all! I'm late with my blog today because we just got back from a Christmas dinner with the family. The kids had a great time with gift exchanges and playing the WII video games. It was a late night for the kids, but I'm willing to let them stay up every now and then for special occasions.

OMSI Eve

I am glad OMSI stayed open today on Christmas Eve because I wanted to get the kids out of the house. Outdoor activities are more limited during the winter, so OMSI and similar places provide a great alternative. The kids had fun inside OMSI where it was warm and dry.

Spacing Out Gifts

To ease the kids' anticipation, and to not have them have too much presents on one day, I am allowing the kids to open one gift per day leading up to Christmas. They just opened one gift tonight. They'll open another tomorrow. Now, their gifts are spaced out in a way that allows them to enjoy all of their gifts.

Christmas Countdown

We're doing our form of countdown to Christmas by reading a bedtime story book that has a short story for every day until it gets to Christmas. The kids enjoy the daily stories and their anticipation, I'm sure, increases with every passing day. But we always remind them of the reason for the season and try to have them remember that it is better to give than to receive.

Proper Ground

The water that is seeping through the crawl space vents is a vexing problem. I tried researching the issue and found sites that talked about the need for "perimeter drains" and "French drains" and other items. One site talked about the need to have the ground slope away from the house. I guess this is something I will have to do--maybe tomorrow. That is, I might need to get a shovel and start shoveling a lot of dirt to create the proper slope.

Zoo Lights

We had a lot of fun seeing the Zoo Lights tonight. We rode on the zoo train that lasted about ten-fifteen minutes. The wait took awhile--maybe an hour. But it wasn't too bad because the weather, although lightly raining intermittently, was not freezing. We ate dinner at the Zoo Cafe and then walked around the zoo before heading home.

Create Own Pasta Dish

My family and I ate at an Italian restaurant tonight that allowed customers to create their own pasta dish. I liked this option because I always look for pasta dishes that contain sun-dried tomatoes and could make my own dish tonight containing sun-dried tomatoes, which I did. I enjoyed my pasta meal immensely.

Christmas Program

The kids performed in a Christmas program and did a great job with the other kids singing and performing. They sang Christmas songs and recited poems. Of course parents attend these events to see their kids. But the event was enjoyable and meaningful.

Pools of Water

Water is pooling around the outside of the house instead of draining away. I checked the downspouts and they seem to be working because water is flowing through the downspout. So what is the problem? I'm not quite sure. I'll have to continue investigating.

Winter Warmth

The weather warmed up just a bit which is nice because freezing weather means freezing pipes leading to potential massive water damage. So for this reason, among many, I am glad for above-freezing weather. More warmth equates to more joy in the winter season.

Dealing With Water

I have to check out the problem with water pooling around the house when it rains. The downspouts are working. I think the problem is with the part after the downspout that is supposed to divert the water to the street. I checked the street and found that where the water is supposed to exit, that area is all plugged up. In fact, there is no connecting tube to the street as far as I can tell.

Turkey Chili

I tried cooking turkey chili in a can for dinner and my kids really enjoyed the meal. I cooked up the chili and ladled it over hamburger buns to create my own version of sloppy joes. This dinner provides a lot of protein and the kids ate it, so I'm happy.

Marketing

Marketing is prevalent in society. Yesterday, because I was in a rush, I bought a lunch for my kid at a fast-food drive-through. The lunch box included a plastic dinosaur that lit up in various areas when pushing a button. My kid liked the toy. This is marketing--making a product attractive to the customer. In this case, making fast food attractive to kids (and thus to the parents).

Quick Events

I attended my child's swim meet and was surprised at quickly some of the events and meets can be. I was waiting for my child's event and left the area for a few minutes at most and when I came back, I found out that my child's event (and the single "meet" for that "event") had already taken place. I then had to wait for my child's next event, and I made sure I stayed in the area for that event.

Cardboard Sandals

The kids again spent a lot time indoors because of the cold weather. They kept busy by cutting cardboard to create cardboard sandals. For the straps, they tried using thin sewing yarn, but I suggested using painter's tape. It still broke, so we switched to duct tape and that worked great.

Indoor Play

With the weather so cold, the kids have to stay indoors more. My son plays with Play-Doh more now. He stopped a while back, but now has restarted due to being indoors more. Play-Doh is fun and is a creative outlet for young kids. They make things and work with their hands. It is a good activity.

Cold Experiment

With the temperature below freezing, my son conducted a science experiment whereby he filled a plastic cup with water and placed it outside to see if it would freeze. My wife told him before he placed the cup outside that he had to make a prediction about what would happen to the water. He predicted the water would freeze, and the next morning when he checked, the water indeed was frozen.

Climbing

I was looking at rock climbing gyms around town and found a few. They seem to charge around $10 to $15 dollars just for a kid to do a little rock climbing for a day. They also provide camps and full programs. But I just want to take my kids to a few hours of rock climbing. I'll look around and see if there are more competitive prices for just some simple rock-climbing fun.

Cold Wind

The weather is below freezing and the chilly wind infiltrates every crack in the house. This makes me think about weatherstripping our doors, especially the backdoor where I can really feel the cold wind sneak through the door.

Chili Dogs

My daughter for some reason wanted to eat chili for dinner so I bought a large can of chili (I couldn't find any bottled chili) and cooked it up along with sausages and hot dog buns to create chili sausage dogs for dinner. We ate up the whole can of chili. I had a fun time making this dinner because this was the first time I made chili dogs for dinner.

Nice Window Shades

My kids created a wonderful craft item today at the local library. They created decorative window shades using a stick, a white piece of cloth, and ribbons. I thought it was a very creative idea on the part of the library staff to have kids make this craft item.

Great Football

A great football game was played yesterday between the Ducks (Univ. of Oregon) and the Beavers (Oregon State Univ.) in their annual Civil War game. The lead kept changing and the final score was close. The Ducks won and will go to the Rose Bowl, but both teams gave a great performance.

Hospital Food

I was at the hospital today and I liked the modern look within. It seems that hospitals do consider the decor and layout so as to provide a warm and inviting atmosphere for patients and family members, in contrast to a cold and sterile environment. I also ate at the hospital cafeteria, and I thought the food was quite good despite jokes about how bad hospital food is.

Picking Up Leaves

During the cold season when the leaves start falling, I think the city should have their compost drivers come around once every week instead of just once every two weeks. The leaves are falling from every tree and that means a lot of leaves on the ground around the yard, too much for the compost bins to hold. So the compost drivers really need to come around more often during the cold season.

Memory Foam

I will try the memory foam pads that supposedly provide for better sleep at nights. If memory foam does let a person sleep better, then it would be a great benefit for a person to be comfortable during the one third time of a person's life.