Moving Day (kinda)

Kristin and I decided that we're going to stay in our little house for another year. We're gonna build up a little more equity, finish Kristin's student loan, pay off some of the bills from my surgery, and try again next year. So, obviously, we needed to do a serious re-organization in order to make room for Baby Howk.

To that end, I enlisted my Dad's assistance today. He drove up here this morning, and we spent the day moving furniture from room to room. The "master plan" is to make the computer room into a playroom, so we can give Kathryn some place to keep her toys. The kids will both sleep in Kathryn's room (we'll see if it works). We'll have to be flexible on that one: maybe allowing Kathryn to sleep in a sleeping bag or on the couch once in a while (which she enjoys anyway).

In order to make room in the computer room, we moved the bookshelves into the front room, and the computers into the master bedroom. Moving the computers was our biggest challenge. Neither my Dad nor I are "skilled" electricians. We can set up a computer in no time, but when it comes to running wires and crimping connectors, we're lost. We needed to move the cable modem from the computer room all the way to the other side of the house, through the crawl space.

So we examined the wires, and considered our options. We finally decided to use the existing cable modem coax wire (if it would stretch far enough). But that would require us to cut off the existing connector, strip the wire, and crimp a new connector onto it. After a trip to Radio Shack, and after spending some joint-numbing minutes in the crawl space, we began our "delicate" work of adding the new connector.

Once we fixed it up, we obviously wanted to see if it would work. All of the computer parts were still in the computer room. So I grabbed a power cord out of the jumble of cords, and rushed to see if our wiring job held good. We plugged it in, and after a few breathless moments, both the "Power" light and the "Cable" light came on. Success!

Now, if you have ever had to pick one power cord out of a tangled mess of cords, you might be able to anticipate what happened next. In my rush to test the coax, I paid insufficient attention to both the precise voltage of my power cord (12 V), and the precise power tolerance of my modem (10 V). Thus, ironically, while congratulating ourselves on successfully moving the cable modem, my father and I heard a dreadful "pop". Immediately, we saw (and smelled) smoke issuing from inside the cable modem!

Surprisingly, once I found the correct power cord, the modem still works. But just to be on the safe side, we're having Comcast bring us another one on Thursday. In the meantime, we just won't leave it plugged in overnight: we'd hate to have an electrical fire on our hands!

But all in all, Dad and I had a very successful day. And it was great fun to be able to spend the whole day with him -- he always cracks me up!

Remembering Laura Smith

Today we attended the funeral for Laura Smith, an 81 year-old woman who attended our church. She is survived by her husband Lon, and her three children, Michael, Tom, and Patty. I wanted to share a few thoughts about them.

I didn't know Laura very well. We met Lon and Laura the first day we came to visit the McHenry EFC. They were standing in the foyer, greeting everyone who came in. I later discovered that they'd been the greeters for three years. They would continue as the greeters for the next four and a half years (to the present day). For the first two years Lon couldn't remember my name, but he kept trying. I think he still calls Kristin "Christian", but I'm not sure. Then we'd walk over and say hello to Laura. She started losing her eyesight a few years ago, but she still smiled as much as ever. I think she took her cues from Lon's voice, because as soon as he said, "Hello Mike!" Laura extended her hand.

During the service, they could sometimes be found snoozing in the fourth or fifth row. But I don't think they missed a single service in the time we've been there. Even when Laura was in the hospital, Lon would still try to be in church. Last Sunday (the Sunday after Laura died), Lon wasn't there when the service started. Our church chairman announced Laura's passing, and a few minutes later Lon arrived with his son, Tom. Even now it brings tears to my eyes, remembering him walking in.

Anyway, a few months after we started attending the church, Lon called us out of the blue and asked if we'd like to go "out on his boat". Since neither Kristin nor I are very sociable, and we tend to be uncomfortable around the river, we declined. Little did we know that Lon could be very persistent. He called again the next week, and the next week. We finally accepted (along with a two year-old Kathryn) and out we went.

I didn't know what to expect. After all, Lon was in his early 80s, and I figured we'd just float around on the river for a few hours. I was sorely mistaken. Lon likes speed. He especially likes racing other boats on the river. And on that trip I discovered that there aren't many boats that can beat him on the river either. I'd never traveled that fast (over 80 mph) on water before. My favorite memory was of a race against a boat of young adults (early 20s). We were slowly driving through the "no-wake" area when Lon leaned over and said, "These kids behind us are going to pass us as soon as we get to open water." Sure enough, when the river opened up, they zoomed past. Lon let them get about 50 yards ahead before he punched it. I'll never forget the looks on their faces as we zipped past them. They were very good-natured about it; they cheered us on as we flew by. :-)

And that was pretty much the only time I saw either of them outside of church. Remember, I said I didn't know them very well. So why has her death affected me so much? I don't really know. I just know that I'm very sad for Lon, because he hasn't had to live without Laura since they were married 61 years ago. I can't even imagine what he must be going through. He's the sweetest guy you'd ever meet, and it pains me to see him hurting like this. So if you remember Lon over the next few days or weeks, please pray for him and for his family.

Garbage Day Again

Clearly Kathryn intends to make "taking out the garbage" a part of her weekly chores. She's very good at doing her chores when either Kristin or I are involved. But getting her to do her own chores is very trying.

This is an earlier picture of Kathryn "helping" with the garbage a few years ago. I weathered considerable light-hearted criticism because of this picture: foremost being the accusations of "slave-driver". Thus I have not yet captured a picture of Kathryn wheeling the recycle bin (almost taller than she is) out to the curb. But she takes great pride in her accomplishments, and I'll do almost anything to make her happy... even if it involves giving her some extra chores (strange though that sounds).

Falling Behind on my Movies

I'm falling way behind on my movie reviews, so I'm going to play "catch-up" tonight. I finally saw "Edward Scissorhands" but it didn't really grab me. I think it was a bit too heavy-handed for me, and the comedy was too monotonous. (After all, how many different jokes can you tell about a guy who has scissors for hands?) I think, if Edward had been a more talkative character, he could have added some much-needed witty dialog. I much prefer Burton's "Big Fish," which is very similar to Scissorhands in many respects. But Big Fish adds several extra interesting characters (like the twins, Danny DeVito as the circus ringleader, and Steve Buscemi as the poet). Plus the main character (played by Ewan McGregor) has a wry sense of humor lacking in Edward Scissorhands. If you're in the mood for a quirky dramacomedy, check out Big Fish.

I also had a chance to see "The Illusionist" (with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti -- not to be confused with "The Prestige" with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman). A bit slow, but I absolutely loved it! It's a fairly standard love story (peasant boy falls in love with noble girl; fast-forward 15 years; noble girl engaged to wed evil prince; peasant boy returns to thwart evil prince's wedding plans; etc.) But about midway through, the story turns into a sort of mystery/political-thriller. The title derives from the fact that the peasant boy has become a famous illusionist, and supposedly all of the magic tricks were actually being performed at the time the movie takes place (1900's Vienna). Unfortunately, some of the visual effects are a bit too obvious, leading us to believe that our illusionist actually possesses supernatural powers. I was caught up in the story immediately, and the ending neatly tied up all of the loose ends. Very highly recommended!

Garbage Day

Every morning, Kathryn sees me off to work. Kristin's normally still in bed when I leave, but Kathryn always wants to be out of bed before I leave. If she doesn't wake up before I do, it's my job to wake her up. This morning, Kathryn came into our bedroom before either Kristin or I awoke. She was very excited because (as she said), "Guess what? It's Tuesday!!"

"OK? What does that mean?" I asked.

"Tomorrow is Wednesday!!!" she announced

So I wondered aloud, "And why is that important?"

"Because Wednesday is garbage day. I want to get dressed first-thing in the morning to help you take out the garbage."

Now normally on Wednesday mornings, she watches me take out the garbage. But because she's still in her pajamas (or, as is more customary, in her underwear) I don't have the time to wait for her to get dressed so she can "help" me.

I didn't give it any more thought during the day. But as I was coming home from a meeting at church, the sight of my neighbors' garbage cans reminded me of Kathryn's announcement this morning. So I asked Kristin if Kathryn had mentioned anything more about "helping" me the next morning. Kristin told me that, before Kathryn went to bed, she announced her intention of getting dressed immediately the next morning. She even asked Kristin to lay out a pair of pants for her, and to let her sleep in a t-shirt. I adore my little helper!

Payton's Birthday

Kathryn and I went down to Joliet on Saturday for my niece, Payton's, 3rd birthday (Terra's youngest daughter). It was nice to see everyone again, even though I didn't know half the people there. Obviously Scott's side of the family was there, so I was already at a disadvantage. And I can't really recognize many of my cousins on Pat's side of the family either, because I don't see them all that often. Add to that the fact that most of them are married, with children, and I was lucky to know about 25% of the attendees. But that didn't really matter, because we were all just playing with the kids anyway.

Terra and Scott put up one of those big inflatable "moon walk" things. I don't have any experience with those things, but this one looked really neat. There was a big slide inside, and the kids were reaching some incredible velocities by using blankets to zoom down. I tried it only once, and I found out why the "Rules for Safe Use" warned against letting any part of your body touch the slide without a blanket. I climbed to the top with Payton and Kathryn. I sat on the blanket, and they sat on my lap. I was unprepared for the speed of our descent, and that (plus their weight) caused me to lose my balance temporarily. I used my right elbow to right myself, and immediately regretted it. It suddenly felt as though my flesh was being burned completely off my elbow. I'm exaggerating a bit, but it still hurt a lot. When we stopped, Kathryn and Payton grabbed the blanket and went up for another run. I just laid there for a moment...

One thing I pride myself on: I'm pretty good at buying gifts for my nieces and nephews (probably because I'm still, mentally, about 10 years old). In this case, I had Kathryn to help me. I asked Kathryn to choose between some stuffed animals, and an animal hospital (with pretend medical tools, three little animals, and a little place to house them). She chose the animal hospital. When Payton opened her gifts, she kept going back to our little animal hospital, and asking Terra to open it for her. It took us a while to get her to pay attention to opening the rest of her gifts. Score one point for Uncle Michael and Cousin Kathryn!

Who pays for political stupidity? We do.

Here are a couple of excerpts from a story on gamepolitics.com about Blagojevich's failed attempt to regulate the sale of violent video games:

$510,528.64: the amount the State of Illinois must reimburse the video game industry for legal fees incurred fighting Gov. Rod Blagojevich's failed video game law, ruled unconstitutional by a Federal District Court judge last December.

"Judge Kennelly's rulings send two irrefutable messages," said ESA boss Doug Lowenstein. "Not only are efforts to ban the sale of violent video games clearly unconstitutional, they are a waste of taxpayer dollars. The sad fact is that the State of Illinois knew this law was unconstitutional from the beginning. Taxpayers have a right to know that over half a million of their dollars and countless government hours were thrown away in this fruitless effort."

If you want to read the whole article, it's near the bottom of this page.

Loosening Summer's Hold

While driving home from work today, I witnessed the first signs of Summer's Defeat: three dead leaves fell onto my car from the overhanging tree! Oh glorious day!

Obviously, I love autumn! And I absolutely can't stand summer. I don't understand it. Most people seem to enjoy the sweltering heat, the annoying bugs, and the high pollen count. But I am not one of them. I prefer the crisp, cool air, the Holiday preparations, the smell of burning leaves, and pumpkin pie.

Therefore, I'm trying to scare up interest in a "Welcome to Autumn" party on September 22 (Lord of the Rings fans will understand the reference). Jeff has already been asked to find the biggest free-standing tree he can for the event. Everyone will be asked to bring some food to share, and a "mathom". For those who don't know, Tolkien defines a mathom like this:

"Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort"

If you have any other ideas to incorporate into the inaugural event, let me know. It should be a blast! So come and enjoy the arrival of autumn with us. More details to follow as the date approaches.

New York Yankees vs. Chicago White Sox

On Monday, Amber announced that she was the winner of an office drawing for four tickets to the Yankees/White Sox game last night (Tuesday). So, I called Kristin to ask if she'd like to go. Unfortunately, she had a Women's Ministry meeting last night, but she authorized Kathryn and me to go. Bill and Amber were both going to come too. But since Bill wasn't going to be able to leave work until the start of the game, we decided to drive separately.

So Kathryn and I arrived at "U.S. Cellular Field" at about 6:30, and found our seats (on the main level, third-base side, only seventeen rows from the field)! Kathryn slept a bit on the way down, so I wasn't too worried about missing her bedtime. The game started at 7:05. Kathryn understands enough baseball terminology to follow some of the plays, but she was much more interested in the food, of course. Earlier in the day, we found out at the allergist's that Kathryn is definitely allergic to peanuts, so we avoided them completely. But she enjoyed a lot of the other "junk" food at the park. Her favorite was a Lemon Ice at the end of the night.

I was very glad the White Sox managed to hit a couple home runs, so Kathryn could see the celebratory fireworks. Round about the eighth inning, Kathryn asked if we could leave. We still didn't get home until about 11:00. She enjoyed her "first professional baseball game" (as she puts it).

Lovie Smith's son on the TIU coaching staff

I just found this article on the Chicago Bears website. I guess there's another small Bears connection to our alma mater.

By the way, we're planning to go see the Homecoming game this year on October 7th. I'm not sure what other events they've planned, but since this is "technically" the ten-year reunion for many of us, I figured we may as well stop by.

The Return of Big Momma

Remember Big Momma (the big spider who successfully defends our front door each summer)? You may remember that last month I tried to relocate her, so I could get rid of the unsightly webs she places all around our front porch. Well, she's back!

I picked Kathryn up tonight after her trip to Iowa. But when we got home, there was Big Momma sitting on the house, right by the walkway to the porch. I wondered if she held any animosity towards me. After all, I had forced her out of her comfy little corner by the door. Sure enough, I could just barely make out the thin strands of webbing stretched between the house and the porch railing -- we'd have to walk through them to get to the front door. I foresaw hundreds of tiny filaments clinging to my body; webbing streaming out behind me. And on the end: Big Momma, crawling inexorably towards the creature who dared disturb her lair...

I panicked. I ran through the web, frantically chopping through the web with my arms. If you've seen Toy Story, picture Buzz Lightyear's "Karate Chop Action", and you'll have a good idea how silly I must have looked. I figured that if she attached herself to my arms, at least I'd have a chance to fling her into the yard when she tried to sink her fangs into me.

Of course, she just sat there, laughing at me. So I got Kathryn out of the car (I didn't want Kathryn "endangered" during my mad dash through the web), and we went inside. I wonder if I'll have to go through the same thing every night...

Kathryn to Iowa

Kathryn stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell in Iowa this weekend. We chose the Culvers in Rock Falls, IL as our meeting place (since it's roughly two hours from both McHenry and Iowa City). I don't have many details, but I know she went to the Childrens' Museum, to a Hooverball game (don't ask), to a concert, and to some fireworks. She also "helped" to prepare the communion for Sunday morning.

OK; I just got some details. She's supposed to be asleep, but she came into the computer room as I was typing. She wanted to show me a "pinch" on her hand. I guess she was racing somewhere with Grandma, and she (somehow) pinched her hand in the closet door (I think). I just typed in what she told me, so here it is:

I had my hand out. I was trying to stop myself from sliding so I wouldn't get pinched. I didn't want to get pinched, which means I didn't want to get hurt. But I got pinched anyway. And Grandma decided to put ice on it, but that made it hurt even more! It must have been a really tough pinch if putting ice on it made it hurt even more.

So there you have it. Straight from Kathryn herself. Now she's going to go show Mommy her "tough pinch".

Competition

There is a really cool web game that's going around at my workplace. It's called simply Words, and it's great fun. Tonight I reached my personal best of 1230. It's basically a typing game. Words scroll in from the right, and you need to type in the complete word before it reaches the left side.

Manyof you have a very competitive streak in you. Who can beat me? I'm sure Jeffrey could do it, and maybe Amber (especially with her new data entry training). Randy... you'll probably want to sit this one out. My old nemesis; how are your typing skills? And what about you, Mom? Send me your top scores, and we'll see. :-)

Saturday at the Enchanted Castle

I had an extrememly hard time deciding what to do with Kathryn last Saturday. It was another ultra-hot day, so I didn't want to spend too much time outdoors. I thought about taking her to the pool, but I knew we wouldn't be able to spend enough time there to fill the entire day.

But then I remembered that the Carlisle's sent us a list of places around the area where they often take their kids. Unfortunately, that was one of the few e-mails they sent to my work e-mail address. I.S. has been regularly purging that stuff, so that e-mail is now beyond recall.

However, while hunting in vain for that e-mail, I came across another of their suggestions: the Enchanted Castle in Lombard (basically a glorified Chuck E Cheese). So that's where we went.

I told Kathryn that I was taking her to "a surprise" for lunch, and then going to Joliet for dinner. She tried to trick me into giving away the "surprise". First she asked if we were going to Joliet for lunch too. Then she asked if she'd ever been there before. Finally she said, "Daddy, what if I don't like what they have to eat? You should tell me where we're going so I'll know if I'll like their food." I assured her that she'd like it and just kept driving. Finally she tried the "sad eyes" treatment on me: "Daddy, I'm scared because I don't know where we're going. You should tell me so I won't be scared."

Of course, once we arrived, she was amazed! We were able to make our favorite kind of pizza there (pepperoni, black olives, and sweet BBQ sauce). Much better than the stuff Chuck E Cheese tries to pass off as pizza. Then we hit the miniature golf. She's getting much better with the putter; she doesn't just push the ball around anymore, and she's starting to figure out how to line it up for a "good" shot. The mini golf had a "haunted house" theme, so they had a bunch of "black light" all over the place. She'd never seen a "black light" before, so she was preoccupied with her glowing socks and shoes.

Then she went to the kids climbing area, and spent a good hour bouncing around and playing "Super Heroes" with the other kids. After that, she beat me at air hockey for a while (but they were close games). :-)

The last thing we did before we left was the go-cart. I'd never driven one of those things before, but we had a great time. Kathryn claims that she doesn't like "fast rides", but she always loves the faster stuff at amusement parks. So we both had a fantastic time!

When we left, Kathryn made me promise to bring her back some day. It's quite a drive to get down there, but we'll definitely add it to our list of "Cool Places to take Kathryn".