Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in BOB!!'s LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 11th, 2012
8:35 am	Mine Too! Note to my children: if I have just taken you to school by pushing you in front of me in the running stroller, I really don't want to hear either of you say, "Dad, carry me - my legs are tired." (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
7:35 pm	The Things Which Not Fruit Rollups Meg, having requested fruit rollups for dessert, was looking in the snack cupboard for them. She picked up a Gourmet Key Lime Liqueur Cake and commented, "That is SO not fruit rollups!" Jess chimed in from the couch, "As opposed to the things which are only kind of not fruit rollups?" Fortunately, Mom came to the rescue with Cadbury Creme Egg minis. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
9:51 pm	Why Yes, I'll Pay -$3 For Delivery and Installation Lately, I had noticed that the battery in our 5-year-old car might be dying (most notably not quite wanting to turn over on the coldest days). This afternoon, after dropping the girls off at gymnastics (which involves turning off the car and going in with them), I drove five minutes to a grocery store, then another five minutes back, after which I sat and listened to the radio for a while with the fan running while I read a book (yeah, I know, that wasn't the smartest thing to do). When the girls and I came out of gymnastics, the car wouldn't start. The slight hill I was on wasn't enough to roll-start it, and the jump-starter battery device that I keep in the trunk was at about half-charge (I expect if I would have left it attached for a while, it would have eventually charged up the battery enough to start the car). Fortunately, the mom of one of Meg's classmates asked me if I wanted a jump. Naturally, rather than waiting for the jump-starter to probably eventually charge the battery enough to start it, I said yes. Upon getting home, Jess mentioned the previous time we had a dead battery, when AAA sent out a replacement battery. I went to their website and got a quote for them to do so this time. The amount they quoted me, with the $25 AAA member discount, was less than the amount I saw with a quick Google search. Realizing that seeking out the cheapest possible source would take time, and that then I'd have to go out and actually get the battery, and then put it in, I decided to go with the AAA delivery option. So I talked to AAA, and at 7:25, they told me the truck would arrive within 40 minutes. At 7:39, the guy was knocking at the door. Half an hour later, after checking the old battery and telling me that it was at half the [mumble mumble technical term] of a new battery, replacing the battery and then testing it (including having me turn on the AC and the high-beams with a testing device attached to the battery), he was on his way. After I came back into the house, I went to Autozone's website and checked prices. The cheapest battery that would fit my car was $7 less than I paid. The battery that had the same warranty as I got would have cost $3 more than I paid for the battery with delivery and installation. Sometimes, it's just not any cheaper to do it yourself. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
4:04 pm	Like Taking Oreo Stuffing From A Baby On our last shopping trip, I saw packages of Oreos on sale, with a coupon that made them pretty cheap. Thinking to myself, "I like Oreos and haven't had any in a while," I got one. After I got them home, Jess opened them up, and took out a pair, twisted off one side and made a doublestuff Oreo, then put the sides without any stuff into the compost. Realizing the waste involved, and that there are two kids in the house who would be happy to eat those cookies, when I made myself some doublestuff Oreos, I put the cookies in a container to save them for the girls. This afternoon when we got home from school, Nicky asked for cookies. I took the container out of the cupboard, and Nicky was quite pleased to have some stuffless Oreos. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
4:19 pm	"Our Cash is Blowing Away" As I turned onto our street while biking home from school with Nicky, I reached into my pocket to hand her the garage door opener (she likes to push the button & open the door). Very shortly thereafter, she said "Our cash is blowing away!". I tried to figure out what she meant, but she was insistent that what she really meant was, "Our cash is blowing away!" So I said, "OK, show me where our cash is blowing away." She then led me out the garage door and pointed to the street, where a small square of folded paper was lying - a scrap of paper that had come out of my pocket when I handed her the garage door opener. It turned out that it wasn't cash, it was the paper that I record the data from my bike computer when I have a stop en route (because I like to record the trip to school and the trip home as separate workouts in my exercise log). Thanks, Nicky! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
8:10 pm	You Can Give Away Our Door Prize Every Time This afternoon, we went to a pizza party and tour of Fedex Field for members of the Redskins Kids Club. They had a door prize drawing, and unfortunately, we didn't win any of the autographed Redskins items. We won a $10 gift certificate for a restaurant that's far enough out in the 'burbs that it's not worth driving out that far for $10 worth of free food. Fortunately, there was a mistake, and they gave away our gift certificate to someone else. So to make up for it, instead of a $10 gift certificate, they're going to mail us a $50 gift certificate. To that random person who didn't have ticket #797 and came up and claimed our prize anyway... Thanks! (Comment on this)
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
2:16 pm	Missed That Lesson When They Taught it at Cop School, Eh? Yesterday evening, while the kids were in gymnastics, I went out running. A couple blocks from the end of my run, I had to cross the street at an intersection. As I got there, I saw a police car about a hundred yards or so away, easily far enough that I could run across the street without him needing to slow down for me, let alone slow down. As I was crossing in front of him, he chirped his siren at me, so I turned and gave him a palms up shoulder shrug (the sort which means, "What?"). I continued my run, and as I turned the next corner, he pulled up nearby and said out his window, "I guess I missed the stop sign - Oh wait, I didn't have one." I pointed out that I was crossing at a crosswalk (unmarked, but in Maryland, any intersection that has a sidewalk perpendicular to it is has a crosswalk, whether marked or not). He responded, "You still have to stop." I replied that whether it's a marked crosswalk or not, pedestrians have the right of way." Either he decided that my argument was compelling, or he decided that he didn't want to waste his valuable donut-eating time, so he didn't follow me as I continued my run. In retrospect, I thought of two things that I could have said, had I wanted to escalate the situation. The first is in the subject line, and the second is something to the effect of "Why don't you just write me a ticket for jaywalking, and I'll let the judge handle telling you what a fool you are." Also, having looked up the relevant law (because I was sure I remembered that unmarked crosswalks are still crosswalks in MD, but wanted to check the rest of the law), it turns out that the cop was technically in violation of the law, because he failed to stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk, which is good for a point on his license and a $75 fine. Having heard of situations where judges had witnesses (not the defendant) charged for infractions that they admitted to on the stand, I would have found it amusing to get him to admit to his violation of the law when I cross-examined him. Not that I would have expected the judge to have him charged, but I might have suggested it. Another thing I discovered, reading the relevant law, is that for it to be an unmarked crosswalk, MD requires that there be a sidewalk, that if it were to continue, would cross the street. But in case law, an 8 foot wide strip of dirt that people regularly walked on was found to be sidewalk. One more "shoulda said" that I thought of: I also thought, after the fact, that pointing out his attitude as one reason why people don't respect cops - here I was crossing a street fully within my rights, and he comes at me with an obnoxious comment. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
9:15 am	To Do List Now that Meg has figured out reading, she's moved quickly into writing, and seems to always be looking for opportunities to write things. Yesterday, while Jess was at work, Meg made a birdhouse out of a soda case, with 2 signs; one with our house number and one that said "FLIY IN THE WINDOW" (for the birds who aren't smart enough to figure out how to get in on their own, but can read, I guess). Then, after I put Nicky in bed for a nap, I told Meg I had to get some work done before I could play with her. So she decided to make To Do lists for both of us. Meg's List: WAT MEG HAS TO DOW PLY TIM PLY CARDS GIT RED TO STRECHING TIM CISS AND HACTS FINNISH! "Kiss and hugs" in line 6 threw me for a moment. My List: WAT DAD HAS TO DOW GIT WOCK DAN REED TO MEG WOCH PLY TIM PLY WITH MEG CISS AND HAG MEG FINNISH! There was also a little heart in front of "Finnish!" I don't know which she wrote first, so I don't know whether "hug" morphed from "HAG" to "HACTS" or vice versa (or maybe if it's irregular, so the plural of hag is hacts). (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
11:26 am	I don't think so... This morning at school, I saw a video trailer for Richard Louv's book "The Nature Principle" and the second sentence was massively jarring to me. Just think; ten years ago we had no Wi-Fi, GPS or iPods. Uhhh, yeah we did. I've never been particularly bleeding edge, and I had WiFi & GPS in 2001 (i.e. ten years before "The Nature Principle" came out). I remember sitting in my hammock with my PowerBook with no ethernet cable to it, looking at dash points. Apple introduced Airport (and the WiFi Alliance was founded) in 1999. The US government turned off Selective Availability for GPS in 2000 and people started geocaching the month it got shut off. The closest the above quoted sentence is to true is about iPods - I didn't have one in 2001 (so I had to look them up) - they came out in late 2001. The trailer goes on, No Facebook, smartphones, e-readers, or streaming movies. Facebook - ok; smartphones - nope, when I first got hired by Sprint in 2001, I almost convinced myself that I should buy one (and they weren't the bleeding edge, either); e-readers - true, at least not as we currently think of them (although I read stuff from Project Gutenberg on my PDA in 2003 & I expect that it was probably possible to do so in 2001); streaming movies - definitely not streaming Hollywood movies, but I watched video over the internet in 2001. That said, I find myself in general agreement with Louv. But if I wind up meeting him, I'll have to point out the inaccuracy (since the principal of my kids' school is a big fan of his and she brings in authors to speak, I might actually wind up meeting him). (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 18th, 2011
1:32 pm	Junior Note to sportscasters (and everyone else, but sportscasters seem to be the biggest offender): if a person is a junior or third, that's not part of his last name - when you refer to him by last name, just use the last name, unless you think there's some chance we'll mistake the man for his father or grandfather. For example, if Redskins running back Roy Helu Jr. is carrying the ball, you don't have to call him Helu Jr. - he's the only Helu on the field, and we're not going to think that the Redskins put his dad in to go for the first down. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
9:10 am	Ooops! Some of you might recall that I take my kids to school in a trailer that I tow behind my bike. I have a front-wheel bike rack in the middle of the garage so I can leave the trailer attached pretty much all the time, and ride the bike straight into the garage and straight into the rack when I get home. I usually hit the garage door opener as soon as I turn the corner onto our street so that the door is all the way up and I don't have to duck my head when I get there. This morning, I hit the garage door opener as usual, and then was only slightly surprised to see a head pop up from behind the car. I hadn't thought about the fact that today was likely to be the day that the guys who were fixing the trim on our house got around to painting the garage door. The guy working on the door was much more surprised than I was. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
6:53 pm	Redskins vs. Navy This evening, Meg, having watched both the Army-Navy game and the Redskins this weekend, asked if the Redskins ever played Navy. We told her they didn't, because Navy is a college team and the Redskins are (or at least purport to be) a professional team. Meg went on to comment, "If Navy plays the Redskins, we'll be happy no matter who wins." Jess and I agreed, and then I commented to Jess that no matter who won, we'd be surprised, too. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
6:19 pm	Life's Little Lessons As we were coming into the garage this evening, after biking and roller skating, Meg got a little close to the closing garage door when Nicky was pushing the button to close it. I decided that now would be a good time to start instilling in them how dangerous a garage door can be. I remembered that we had grapes in the fridge, so I got one and set it down in the middle of the dark line on the garage floor where the door hits. I had the girls stand about three feet away and watch as I closed the door. After the door edge came down on the grape, I raised the door back up. The small pile of goo on the garage floor made a significant impression on the girls. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 17th, 2011
2:34 pm	Creeping Bilingualism This morning, Nicky sang a song in Spanish about colors. A few minutes later she sang one in English. After finishing the song in English, she realized that it didn't have as many colors as the one in Spanish, and asked me, "What's gris in English?" (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
10:40 am	Cute Things They Say While we were shopping yesterday, I bought a plate of sushi to share with Nicky (Meg didn't want any). Nicky ate most of it, and as we were on the way to the car, there were only a couple pieces of eel left. I said to her, "Nicky, if you eat the last piece of eel, I'm going to have to eat you." Meg responded plaintively, "Don't eat Nicky, she's my best friend." (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
9:36 pm	Don't Doodle in the Poodle Nicky has an interesting issue with how she pronounces words that end -ool (and presumably words that end with the same sound, although I haven't quizzed her on them). She pronounces them like they end -oodle. Specific examples that I've heard her say are pool (which she pronounces poodle) and stool (which she pronounces stoodle). Of course, to be true to the subject line, when she wakes up in the morning, I'm going to ask her to say 'duel' - or maybe 'dual'. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
9:06 am	I Want it All Nicky is recovering from strep. In order to make her twice-daily medicine taking less of a struggle, she gets a treat after she takes her medicine. This morning, Jess brought out the candy jar to let her pick what she wanted for her treat. Nicky's response? "Let's get everything!" Also, on Wednesday, after getting antibiotic injections both Monday and Tuesday, we were sitting with the doctor talking about further treatment options. The doctor was hesitant to give her another shot instead of putting her on oral antibiotics. I pointed out that Nicky hates taking oral medications, and that one shot would be preferable to a ten day course of oral antibiotics. Nicky, hearing what we were saying, decided to put in her own two cents, "I don't like medicine. Nicky want shot." Unfortunately for Nicky, the doctor decided that best medical practices should take precedence over two-year-old patient preference. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
8:25 pm	Hey Greg Can I Borrow Your Kids? Earlier this month, I got an email from the Redskins Kids Club, inviting Meg & Nicky to a pizza party and behind the scenes tour of FedEx field. I thought, "The kids will enjoy this, and so will Jess & I!" I picked up the phone and called Jess at work, and just as I started telling her about it, I realized that the event was going to happen while the girls were still in California with their grandparents. I was disappointed, because I wanted to do the tour of FedEx. Suddenly, I had an idea. Being involved in a stay-at-home dads group, I know a number of guys with kids who I enjoy hanging out with. The first to spring to mind was my friend, Greg, who has twin daughters and whose parents met at a party while watching the Redskins play. So I called Greg, and sure enough, he was interested. And even better, his wife, whom he wasn't sure would go for the idea, said, "You'll be gone most of the day, won't you? Cool, a guilt-free day without the kids!" This morning, Greg picked me up at home, and then we headed out to the stadium. We got to see the Redskins locker room, the visitors locker room, but all the on-field activities were cancelled due to the cold and last night's snowfall. After eating pizza, the kids good goodie bags. I was able to convince the nice young woman handing out goodie bags to give me a couple for my kids. As we got to the car, Greg was joking about what a good job his kids did pretending to be Meg & Nicky. Then we joked around, saying things like, "In tonight's performance, the role of Meg will be portrayed by Emma, who also starred in...". (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 25th, 2011
2:34 pm	Buy One, Get Two Free! I was on my way home from the library on my bike, when I passed a truck from South Mountain Creamery parked at the side of the street. Remembering that I ran out of milk at breakfast yesterday, and not wanting to take the time to go for milk today, I decided to ask if the guy in the truck could sell me some milk. It turned out that he had 3 half gallon bottles left over after his deliveries. Since I'll need to go shopping before Jess & the girls get back from their vacation on Tuesday, I told him I only needed one. After I had strapped it to my bike rack, he asked if I wanted the other two free. Since I had originally thought about just carrying the one bottle in my hand on the way home (I was 5 blocks away), I figured I could just carry one in each hand, so I said sure (since the girls will need milk when they get home anyway). I made it home without incident, and am enjoying a nice cold glass of milk as I post this. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 21st, 2011
4:01 pm	Tasty! At lunchtime, I decided I wanted to cook something. I opened the fridge to see what we had. Our last CSA delivery included kale, which, as she left on Saturday, Jess suggested I give to a neighbor. We also had about a cup of chopped onion (left over from a previous recipe that Jess made - it's easier to chop the whole thing and measure than it is to guess how much of the onion to chop to make the amount you need), and a half pound of hot Italian sausage. So I sauted the onions, tossed the sausage in with it, and then the kale for about a minute at the end. I'm glad I didn't give the kale away. (2 Comments |Comment on this)