Tristan's Tantalizing Thoughts

Brandon is still loving flag football and our practicing at home is sure paying off. I love that he is having a great time with sports...now I'll just have to make sure it stays in balance with academics as he gets older.












Video? I gots video!

Offense:


Defense:


Athletic AND smart...I am one PROUD Dad!

Probably never happened, but it still makes for a damn funny story...

From a Physics exam:

"Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or Endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote Proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let us look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you.", and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze."

This student received the only A."

Friday saw me raking up the cut grass in the backyard. Brandon insisted on helping me and did a great job. He is very unhappy if he does not get to help Daddy.

Saturday was bag the raked grass day starting at 8:30 am. Then I cleaned inside(vacuum, mop, wipe down), went out for lunch with Brandon while my agent was showing the house and then we were off to see Iron Man (AWESOME).

Sunday was MUCH more relaxing. We played video games, practiced throwing and catching the football (once he realized he needs to NOT keep his left hand on the ball quite so long his throws were VERY good). We ran out so I could buy some stuff for my lawn mower. While he had lunch I replaced the bald, gave it an oil change, changed the air filter, and changed the spark plug. Runs TONS better now BUT I now suspect a fuel leak (strong gas odor in the garage and hint of moisture just under where the fuel line runs). Sigh. Still better than shelling out $300.00 for a new one. After that I mowed the front yard and then Brandon helped me plant the flowers he grew from seeds into pots that are now to either side of the front door.


We also did his science project with me on Sunday. All about making bubbles. I was VERY impressed with his concentration and he had a good feel for figuring out what to conclude from the results. He actually really got "cause and effect" and why it is good to only change ONE thing at a time in an experiment. I was very proud of him.

Same people from Saturday are looking at the house again today...keep your collective fingers crossed!

Work is keeping me busy, busy, busy.

Still no bites on the house.

Brandon rocks in flag football. All the practice of catching and throwing we did last year has really paid off; he really is showing good form in throwing the ball and no longer is afraid about having the ball hit him. He LOVES having me see him use the right motions in throwing. Our work with throwing a baseball has produced the same results. Another triumph for physics!

Did TONS of yard this weekend. I'm STILL sore.

I had mowed the front lawn on Wednesday of last week but the grass was long enough that it was not all going into the bag; I left clumps. Saturday comes around and it is SUNNY. I go outside with Brando to rake the clumps. As before, Brandon INSISTS on helping Daddy. I grab water for me, water and juice box for him, big rake for me, smaller rake for him, and we hit it. We get done quickly, with Brandon looking at me and saying "I like raking, Daddy. It's fun for me. Can I help you with something else?"

I should have recorded that for use when he is older.

We followed that up with feeding and mulching the trees and mulching one side of the driveway.

From there on it was chalk drawings on the driveway, playing catch (with me discovering I need to stand farther away from Brandon than I use to...he finally 'gets' the throwing form I taught him), frisbee and then finally playing with our neighbors girl across the street. They had a blast on her trampoline and then playing games over at our place. We finished strong with Daddy Brandon home snuggle movie night (TM).

Sunday was rain. No problem there...we watched Survivorman (he is hooked) and then he played in the sunken tub wearing the mask and snorkel I bought him (he saw someone on TV doing SCUBA and I explained SCUBA was out right now but 'try this', heh). We read three books, with him really working hard on two of them to sound the words out. A little Star Wars Legos video game action and then off to bed.

Great weekend!

I am working on setting up a ride along with my neighbor (Baltimore county cop) and also going shooting sometime.

I am sitting here when I received a meeting request...for April 20, 1500-1530.

I squint at it. I look at my calendar. I squint at it again.

Before the higher level processes of my brain can take control of my hands, my ID hits decline with edit:

"My flux capacitor is broken" SEND.

Within 5 minutes another meeting request came out for today. Hope that branch chief has a sense of humor

It is not often that I am rendered speechless. Indeed, I am sort of know at work for my ability to deliver a humorous reply no matter how ridiculous the question.

So....

We have a big review going on this week. I normally dress in jeans and a polo at work because, well, I really do WORK. This means that when I wear a suit, I get comments.

I'm walking down the hallway to my office and I see two team leaders from the division chatting with a third guy who knows me because of the division 'socials' I organize. The team leaders are nice guys that I often joke with. One them looks up, greets me, and then says:

"You know what Greg, and I mean this in a totally non-sexual way, when you dress up...you're a really good looking guy."

Silence falls. I keep walking, looking down at the floor, for one brief, shining moment rendered speechless. I mean, how the hell do you respond to that?

I hear one of them chuckle and in a low voice say "He just doesn't know what to say to that."

Then, my muse returns....

"Well thanks _____, that's really nice of you to say...but you know, that's why I purposely dress down all the time...because (and here I put on a fake choked up, sobbing voice) I just don't want to be treated like another piece of beef."

The laughter just echos down the hallway as I pass them and then from behind me I hear "ya know, that was a really good reply..."


I'm here all week...

This is the part of our program where we answer letters from our readers.






Yes, I know....just humor me and go with the gag, will you? Sheesh.





Erica from Nebraska asks "Dear Greg, just how good of seats did you guys have at that baseball game? And is your son single because my daughter thinks he is hot"

Well Erica, Brandon is single and flattered but his heart belongs to the girl across the street from us...and Hannah Montana. As for the baseball game, well, see for yourself...






Our next letter is from John in NYC. John writes "Yo, youse never said nuttin about no Easter. What up wit dat?"

Well John, aren't you just the Hemingway of Queens? Oh, wipe the confused look off of your protruding, bony brow lest you over tax that 2 cc brain. Easter was a blast. The yard was wet from rain so the Easter Bunny left his stuff in side the house. There was a great basket...



...and lots of eggs for Brandon to find. Once he found them all he planted himself in the family room and started cracking them open one by one...and sorting the candy by type. That's mah boy!



Finally, Becky of Los Angeles CA writes...err....heh...well...gulp...thanks for the picture Becky but this is a family show.

That's all for now folks. Until next time keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

I had a very relaxing weekend. Brandon declared Saturday to be a Star Wars holiday. When I asked him how we were suppose to celebrate Star Wars Day, he told me it was by playing all things Star Wars.

Well, that WAS fun. At the end of the day I asked him if we had done everything he wanted to do and he said "no". He was upset that we had run out of time and did not do "Daddy Brandon home snuggle theater night" with Episode VI. I explained that we had run out of time but we could do it Sunday. Well, that didn't go over well as he pointed out that then the holiday would be over. I suggested that it would still be OK.

:-)

Sunday saw us off to a Frederick's Keys game during the Open House (no word yet on how that went though there are now FOUR other houses for sale in our neighborhood). Brandon had received a voucher for a free seat anywhere in the stadium so I bought a ticket as well. We had AWESOME seats. It was COLD, so we even had a blanket over us. Hot dogs, hot chocolate, chips, and explaining the game to my son..ahhhh...it does NOT get any better than that. It was his first LIVE baseball game and to his credit he was riveted until the top of the 5th. At that point he said he was cold, his team was losing (5 to ZERO, sheesh they need better pitchers, they were walking runs in), and could we please go home. I'll add a few photos of the view from our seats later...

I also had bought some seed starter kits for Brandon and he was jazzed that he could plant his own plants, take care of them, and watch them grow big enough until we transfer them outside to the garden.

I'm back from my quick trip down to Charlottesville VA for a meeting.

Highly recommend the Hilton Garden Inn!

Company wide open house this coming Sunday, keep your fingers crossed.


This coming Sunday will see Bubba and I at a Frederick Keys baseball game.

Watch it ALL the way through...and get DOWN with your Funky self.

I like science...well actually, I LOVE science. I have always felt a need to give back to the community but time is a commodity in short supply for me. One way I found to "help" is through an online science competition sponsor by the U.S. Army, called eCybermission

It is a great way for kids in the 6th to 9th grade to get more involved in science and technology while USING technology to do it. I have been a "Virtual Judge" for about 4 years now. It is not always fun because, even accounting for grade level, there are a lot of bad submissions...REALLY bad submissions. Across the board they do not understand what a hypothesis is and I point the finger at their teachers and project advisors on this issue. A lot of people here at work have quit but I stuck with it because every now and then there is a real gem. I just finished scoring a project from some 7th grade girls. I was blown away by their scientific methodology, research, and documentation. I will not show their full submission here, but I will show something else. These girls actually made a podcast that is publically accessible (which is why I feel I can show it). This podcast doesn't just talk about their project, it DOCUMENTS the experiment...truly phenomenal. Watch the podcast here!

Then, think hard about volunteering for this program in some way so you can encourage kids like these! We need bright, young minds to go into science and we really need to encourage more women to pursue this traditionally male dominated area.

I had a nice week of vacation with Brandon. We stayed local but did TONS of things. Monday started with us having breakfast at Denny's after I picked Brandon up from Jennifer. We then headed over to Dick's sporting goods store to grab a duffle bag and a Raven's cap for Brandon. Of course he had to sling the bag over his arm to make sure he liked it, lol. From there we headed to the Baltimore Aquarium and killed a good 3 hours there before he announced he wanted to leave but not go home yet. BTW, definitely try out the new 4D movie they have...unless you don't like snakes. We tooled around the inner harbor a bit, had a late lunch at an Irish pub/restaurant (where Brandon absolutely charmed our young waitress), and then finally headed home and played some PS2 video games (Spiderman Friend or Foe and Lego’s Star Wars).

Tuesday was consisted of breaking out the coloring books and coloring pictures for each other. I also snuck in some math practice with a math coloring book. From there we switched over to playing with the collection of Lego’s Star Wars toys Brandon is slowly amassing. We finished the day with Episode 4 of Star Wars and "camping" in the living room with our sleeping bags.

Wednesday saw us heading to the movies so Brandon could take me to see "Horton hears a Who", which he had already seen with Jen. We also went shopping for some "gym" clothes to wear when he starts flag football in a couple of weeks. He again picked out exactly what he wanted in the color he wanted (Daddy I want the red, that is my favorite color...). We went back home played some more PS2 and finished watching Episode 4.

Thursday was Fallon's Family Fun Center Day. A huge indoor play area (thankfully since it had been either cold and windy or raining all week to that point) for my monkey to run around in plus lots of fun games to play to win tickets. Brandon managed to hit the jackpot on one of the games and got a TON of toys. The true hit was the soldier parachute toy which we ended up using for HOURS off of the top of the stairs at home in the open foyer. We also started watching Episode 5 of Star Wars.

Friday started with DOUGHNUTS, an exciting trip through doughnut variety with Brandon, after which he determined he now likes FOUR different types of doughnuts, up from the previous ONE type. WOOHOO! A four hundred percent increase! We finally had a day of no rain and relative warmth so we broke out the Spiderman bike and scooter and went around the neighborhood a couple of times. That night we finished watching Episode 5.

Saturday was a quick breakfast of pancakes and sausage before heading over to the bowling alley. All I can say is...thankfully they had rails that could be popped up. :-) We ended up tied 2 games all. We then headed back home and Brandon rode his bike and scooter some more.

Sunday found Brandon hunting for Easter eggs and the basket that the Easter Bunny had left for him...and the basket from our neighbors across the street...and the basket from our next door neighbor...and our next door neighbor's daughter...we have a LOT of Easter toys and candy. One of the things Brandon got from our neighbors was a small Cars dry erase board and pen. He had a blast writing things on it for me to read. As we were leaving to drop him back off with Jennifer he wrote something on it and then stuck it on the side of the refrigerator. He told me not to read it until I got back home.

It said "Daddy is the best Daddy in the whole city."

Awwwww.

And you are the best boy a father could ever hope to have, Brandon...

Bubba Birthday post still coming, I swear...

This morning was apparently question time again (we have awesome conversations in the car) for Brandon. He was WIDE awake. He started it all with:

B: "Daddy, I have a Star Wars question."
Me: Startled..."Ok...what is it?"
B: "Why did Darth Vader turn to the Dark side?" (I SWEAR it asked it that way)

Me: "I see we're going with the deep, philosophical questions this morning."
B: "What did you say?"
Me: "I take it you watched Star Wars movies with Mommy?"
B: "Yes, we watched I think four."
Me: "Really?! Ummm...lets figure out which ones you watched"

...A couple of questions seemed to clear it up for me and...

Me: "Ah, OK. you watched episodes 4, 5, and 6...NOW I know how to answer you"

Thrilled that I wouldn't have to deal with the whole Anakin's mom dies/kills sand people/kills kids in Jedi training stuff, what ensued was about an hour of talking about good motives/bad motives/fear/hate/doing the right thing even if it means getting hurt. He followed everything I said, constantly asked questions regarding what I was saying and doggedly stuck to the conversation until he was satisfied.

He finished with "Ok. Thank you Daddy...but I might have more questions later."

GOD I love that boy!

Update coming soon including details of the Bubba's birthday, with pictures and adventures in snow tubing....

Another security inspection today (internal) before the external one soon. It was pointed out by a person from security that I had been working with that I had worked from THEIR spreadsheet and that I had color coded it in going through and correcting issues. I got "wow, that's great" to which I replied "naw, I'm just logical and anal...fear me."

Another showing this month (2 in now in Feb, I AM amazed). This one is today at 3 pm., keep your digits crossed. No comments yet from other people that looked at it earlier this month.

Brandon's birthday tomorrow! Transformer cake, check. Presents wrapped in transformer paper, check. Transformer party hats, check. Small transformer knickknacks, check. All systems are go for surprising him tomorrow evening. AND, if the weather cooperates, he and I will be joining our neighbors across the street (with the little girl he likes) for snow tubing this weekend.

The Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 KR.

Be still my beating heart!

Yes, I watched Knight Rider...what of it? I only watch it for the car, I swear!

:-)

BTW, more evidence that I live in Mayberry...the neighbor to one side of me sent over hot crab casserole and a tupperware container full of brownies and hershey kisses because "she thought I might like it".

Tonight I retaliated with lasagna and tomato bread, hehehe. Let the food war begin!

Finally relaxing after a long day. I am currently in security inventory hell (that is what happens when everyone thinks you are very organized and anal, you get the detail oriented tasks, sigh).

Thursday...Bubba and I hurried home so he could give some Valentine bags to the two girls in the neighborhood that he likes. While we were talking to my neighbor across the street (with the little girl that Brandon REALLY likes), my neighbor's wife asked what we were going to do for Brandon's birthday. It falls during the week on Thursday but I have him the weekend right after that, so I have been planning on taking him tubing at Liberty Mountain up here in PA(I was going to do it last weekend but he got sick). She then offered up that we ALL go as a surprise for him, so WOOOHOO! He is going to LOVE it! Shhh, no one tell him! ;-)

We then hustled inside, caught up on all of the homework he had missed, opened his Valentine's gift from me, got him in and out of a shower, read a book, and off to bed. MAN I am good! I gave him a stuffed hedgehog holding a heart that says 'Kiss me'. his favorite game became to look at the heart and then turn to kiss me, look at the heart, and then turn to kiss me, look...well you get the idea. LOL!

Huh, what?

Right.

Brandon is fine. His fever cleared up on Tuesday (WOO HOOO!). I was one tired monkey from watching his fever through the night again to make sure it doesn't go to high (hit 103.5 at one point).

He got to watch Daddy shovel snow on Tuesday from the comfort of a nice, warm window. My neighbor came over and helped me at one point and when we were done, Brandon wanted me to "dress him warmly so he can over to his house and thank him for helping his Daddy so Daddy can get done faster."

Dropped him at Jen's place on Wednesday morning so I could make an all day meeting that was a MUST I be at (his school got closed). In my rush I forgot to give him a hug and kiss like I normally do when I drop him off at school (he calls it 'kissy and huggy'. I realized it as I was driving off and called quickly to talk to him...and Jen cut me off to say I had to talk to my son...poor kid was in TEARS. I could barely understand him but he was very upset that I had not given him a kiss and a hug. I got him calmed down and gave him a 'huggy and kissy' over the phone.

Worked until 1830 last night, drove home, set up Brandon's V-day surprise for him for tonight (card, little stuffed hedge hog, and a small candy heart), collapsed into bed. He got a check from my mom for V-day on Monday and he is JAZZED about me "turning it into money" so he can then go to the store with Daddy to buy anything he wants(that Daddy Oks, heh).

Thursday: Rushed around at work getting stuff done because I knew I was taking Friday off to watch Brandon (no school that day). Got some last calculations done right at COB and off to pick up the Bubba...and was starting to not feel that hot. Went to bed with a low grae fever of about 99.

Friday: Sick. Fever of 101. Tried my BEST to not get Brandon infected. Showers, hand washing, etc. Bubba actually let me lay on the couch and dose in and out while he just played or watched Disney channel like the good boy he is. He wrote me notes telling me he hopeed I would feel better and that I was a great daddy. Gotta love that! We played some of his favorite games later. Once he was in bed, I decided to push it a bit and took a hot shower to push my body to burn the bug.

Saturday: Fever gone! Weak, but no longer sick. Ran around cleaning the house for the showing that day at 2:30. went shopping for VV-day stuff for Btrandon's class and for Jen from Brandon. Got home and played some more plus had Daddy-Brandon Home theater Snuggle Movie Night.

Sunday: Felt much better. Did lots of playing with Brandon. Wrote valentine cards with him. Towards the end of the day...he has a low grade fever. Aww shit. By 8 pm it is 101.

Monday: Monitor Brandon all night and dose him with more Children's Tylenol. Fever goes as high as 102.7 when the med wears off. That plus the winds gusting at over 50 mph makes for a long night. Confirm with Jen that Brandon is staying home and that I'll watch him. Called his doctor who said wait it out and don't worry until it is 104. He crosses 103 a few times. He is drinking lots of fluids, eating a little, and is very chatty when the meds are working. NO pain or aches, just the fever. Field some calls from people at work.

Tonight will be another night of keeping an eye on his temperature plus switching over to Children's Motrin. I had already planned on taking Tuesday off (no school for Brandon again).

If he hits 104, we are going to the e-room and that is all that is to it...