Stardate 61610.75 - Loren is 21 Months Old

Loren turned 21 months old today, and in celebration we went to the beach. This time she was not afraid of the waves (maybe because the tide was going out so the waves were crashing and then the water was sweeping towards her without a lot of depth - at least most of the time).

Anyway, she loved standing in the water and getting hit by the waves. First Cheryl held her hands.


Then I did.



Here "Bobby", Loren, and I all gaze out at the Ocean.


Loren also likes us to dig her a pit to play in, along with her standard activity of getting us to build sand castles so she can destroy them.


It was a great day to be at the beach, and after eating dinner out there we drove home.

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Stardate 61606.94 - Back in Time - England, 2002

Since I don't have anything new to talk about today, why don't I talk about something old. Back in November 2002 I had to go to England for 4 weeks for a project (actually 5 weeks, but I came back for Thanksgiving after week 4 and then returned to wrap things up). One Friday was Veteran's Day, and so the location I was working was closed on that Friday and the following Monday. So Cheryl came out for a long weekend and we took a little trip to Cambridge. Here are some photos from that trip. Enjoy!








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Stardate 61603.61 - 5 Voice Over Guys in a Limo

Fellow Jessica Stover fan Dave posted this to his blog, and I thought it was so funny I had to post it here. The video is almost 5 minutes long, but worth it.



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Stardate 61605.25 - Last Shot from Saturday

Here are the last couple of pictures I'm going to post from the Saturday event in Connecticut (these were taken by my cousin Justin). The top one I like because my Uncle Herb is in it and also because I'm in it - I usually seem to take the photos or for some other reason I don't think I post a lot with me in them. In the photo below Cheryl and Loren hang out with Zach at the (literal) kid's table.

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Stardate 61601.09 - Flooding Cripples NYC Subway

I should have suspected there was an issue when the sidewalks were more crowded this morning as I took Loren to day care. I remember thinking, "Is this Amateur Hour?" as people seemed to mill randomly around with no clue where they were going or what they were doing. The buses also seemed a lot more crowded for a morning when the rain had already ended. Granted, there was a big storm early this morning, but the sun was about to break through. Why were people cramming onto the buses and randomly wandering around?

Because most of the subway system was shut down. (Along, apparently, with the MTA's web site).

And on a day when Cheryl has a class all the way downtown. Last I heard from her it was 10 minutes into the start time of the class and she was on a bus at least 30 minutes from the facility.

And on a day when (thanks to the rain) the humidity is up above 75% and the temperature is already above 80 and climbing.

I had to change shirts once I got back home as I was drenched. The cats are on the wood floor, stretched out to maximize fur contact with a cool surface.

Hope the power company can keep up with demand today.

The picture is of Coney Island Stillwell Avenue terminal of the New York Subway, Coney Island, New York and was taken by Kris Arnold. This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License (cc-by-sa-2.0). In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it under this or a similar cc-by-sa license.

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Stardate 61598.34 - Sunday at the Park

On Sunday we took a walk over to Central Park for Loren to play at one of the playgrounds over there.


She really liked balancing on the ropes, but really isn't big enough yet to move around on them on her own.


Central Park was crowded and hot, so we came back over to the park near where we live (for now). Here she tells Cheryl that she is not done with her ice cream cone.


She likes the swings, but always wants me or Cheryl to go with her.


She didn't last very long on her own.


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Stardate 61599.31 - More Pictures from Saturday

Here is a picture my Mom took of me and Alex (my second cousin? first cousin once removed? I forget which - she is the child of my cousin). And the photo below is on me and Cheryl talking to my cousin Angelique, who is due in a couple of months.


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Stardate 61596.82 - Patch My Game

Before Loren was born I wasted a great many hours playing computer games. When I look back on all that time, I am constantly reminded of things I might have accomplished (learning to sail, writing a book) had I not been in front of a computer.

When it is cold outside and Loren is napping on the weekend, however, a computer game is a nice temporary diversion. Now that I no-longer can spend an entire afternoon playing a game, I find that the mental break for a couple of hours every couple of weekends is a nice thing. So a year or so ago I purchased Neverwinter Nights 2, the sequel to a game I loved and played start to finish 3 times over the past 6 years.

It has been a year or so since I played the game last, so when I sat down this weekend to play it I clicked on the "update" button. One hour and 15 minutes later, I am still waiting for all the patches to load.

Now, normally I like it when they add features and correct bugs and improve the engine and interface and all those things game makers do, but I've spent more than 50% of Loren's nap - more than 50% of the only true leisure time I'll have all day - waiting for a year's worth of patches to load.

Depressing. If the game wasn't so damn awesome I'd given up 45 minutes ago.

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Stardate 61592.68 - Thanksgiving in August

As I have mentioned before in a post from 2006, we decided that Thanksgiving in November is too cold, that the roads are too crowded, and that people hate traveling. So we decided to move our family's Thanksgiving celebration to the summer when the weather is nice, the roads are not too bad, and people don't mind the travel.

This year the event was in Connecticut (state motto, "He who transplanted still sustains"), at my Uncle Herb and Aunt Randi's place. Loren really enjoyed the pool and riding in or on the different inflatable boats in the pool.

Cousin Justin supervises the kids, water pistol at the ready.


I keep a close eye on Loren, but she has pretty good balance and never fell off. (No comments on my farmer's tan, my body hair, how out-of-shape I am, or my white chest).


Loren, Cheryl, and our nephew Zach get ready to eat the Thanksgiving meal.


The hot tub made a perfect buffet table.


We tried to get a picture of all the kids, but as anyone with kids knows, that was nearly impossible.


Here my mom, grandmother (Ma-Maw), my sister Tracy, and her son Zach pose with me an Loren for a "four-generation" picture.


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Stardate 61590.73 - City Approval

We received notice that the city has approved the renovations. Next we get the permits (supposedly a quick process) and then renovations can begin!

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Stardate 61584.36 - Voice From the Past

We got back home around 9 PM Sunday night, and there was an answering machine message from Fred, a Triangle Fraternity brother who I worked with back when we lived in Vienna, trying to establish a fraternity chapter at UMCP. He called around 7 and was apparently flying back from Spain via Ireland and was stuck at JFK with his flight canceled. The airline wouldn't pay for a hotel, so he found my number and called us, hoping to crash on our couch. By the time I reached him on his cell, he had found a hotel for $99 (the Pod) but we did meet on Monday for lunch.

We caught up on Monday (we hadn't seen each other in more than 5 years). Fred had just completed a journey along the famous Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela. I haven't had time to read all his entries yet, but it sounded like an interesting trip. I told him all the happenings in our lives, and gave him directions to get to the subway near us so he could get to LGA, which is where he got a re-scheduled flight out of NYC.

It was an unexpected opportunity to catch up with a friend whom I've only really talked to through Christmas Cards for several years.

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Stardate 61582.31 - Possum Creek

Sunday we had plenty of time before we needed to be at the airport for our flights, so Cheryl did a little research and picked Possum Creek MetroPark as our destination for the morning. Although they had live animals (and one of the employees even brought a chick and a rabbit over for petting), Loren only had eyes for the playground. Here she goes down the twisty slide while Uncle Andy watches.


Here Loren tells the farm cat to get out of the way.


She loved these "animals", and insisted that Cheryl and I also ride them.



Here she rides on "the bus" with cousins Ethan and Ellie.


We then went to lunch and made a quick trip over to Walmart (mainly to kill more time). We made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight, which meant that the 60 minute delay resulted in extra time spent entertaining Loren in the airport that we were not expecting. Luckily Uncle Andy and Aunt Jen were flying out (or so they thought) of a gate near us, so they helped entertain Loren (and us).

While we got home just an hour late, Andy and Jen didn't get home until 5 PM the next day. So I won't complain about an hour.

My next post will describe the message waiting on the answering machine when we got home - a voice from the past also affected by the east coast cancellations and delays.

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Stardate 61581.56 - Wedding in Ohio

We didn't take any pictures at the wedding, but we took a lot at the reception. We pushed Loren around in her stroller for 20 minutes or so before the wedding and she fell asleep and then slept through the entire service. She only woke up as I was pushing her out of the church.

In this next picture cousin Jacklyn (sister of the groom) is talking with Cheryl's brothers. In the background is an ambulance because it wouldn't be a wedding on Cheryl's side without an injury at or just before the wedding. Someone fell on the steps here and although she seemed to be ok the ambulance took her away because she cut her head.


Loren had her own seat at our table, which we swapped out for a highchair for the actual meal.


Here Cheryl tries to read to her niece Ellie and Loren.


The cousins really liked going outside and running around this small flower garden in front of the reception hall. It was pretty hot outside (Ohio in July) so the adults were not to thrilled about being outside for long periods of time, but the kids were just too cute.




Here Uncle Steve and Grandma and Grandpop watch the action.



"Fun" Uncle Andy and Aunt Jen pose for the camera.


Cheryl and Loren have their turn posing for the camera.


Aunt Rachel and cousin Ellie have fun.


Yum! Chicken fingers and fries for Loren!


Loren enjoyed the wedding cake.


Here the kids play on the Cornhole (also called Corntoss) target before the competition gets started.


We left between 7 and 8 PM to head back to the hotel, and then Saturday was officially a wrap. In my next post, I'll talk about what we did on Sunday to kill time before our flight out.

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