The Trip Continues

My Update:

Shopping and Swimming, Kids Never Coming Home


From Erika... aka Swimming-Girl:

Love you a lot... have face mask.


My Thoughts About Joel at this exact moment:

Lost Phone Charger? Again? Forgetfulness is genetic.

Yesterday In Cali...

Joel's 7 Word Entry:

We Saw Journey to Center of Earth.

Seven Words

With due acknowledgement to the Webbie Awards (where winners' acceptance speeches are limited to 5 words) and to the Ig Noble Awards (where scientists have to explain their research in 7 words), we will be updating the blog on Joel and Erika's trip to California via 7 word updates.

My first update:

Security Found Gatoraid: Kids Attempt Federal Crime

Ummm... Owiee

So sorry this is the first update in a long time. There are a bunch of updates, however, besides the unsettling pictures you see.

Erika has made the school musical... she's in the Flower Chorus of Alice in Wonderland.

Joel has celebrated his 12th birthday... so much fun.

Regarding the accident, there will be more details as I learn them. I promised pictures... here are a few. More to come. (I'm not sure why these are coming out turned 90 degrees off... but I can't seem to change them this evening.)

Top Ten List

Due to sensitivites expressed by one nine year old girl, the following is a list of the Top Ten things this blog entry was NOT allowed to be titled:

10) Brace Face

9) Metal Mouth

8) Railroad Tracks

7) What Radio Stations Can We Get?

6) The iErika

5) Owieeeeee

4) Erika, Now In High Definition

3) We Don't Need A Charger Anymore

2) Portable Radios

and the Number 1 Title this blog was NOT allowed to be given is....

1) A New Southern Crew Can Opener

Continued Interaction W/ The Girl Child

I sent her a joke (which I will include, with the following caveat: Don't hate me because I'm funnier than you are). She responded... and the following was the result.

Start with the joke from me:

What goes “oooooooooo”?

Answer?

A cow with no lips


She replied:

dear dad I am sending you a high-ku

did you make that up

i mean did you make the joke

i really liked it


Back from me:

What a nice haiku.

You did very well young child.

I think you can stay.


Dad – Haiku’Master-san


And from her:

ah but can you beat

me in the art of haiku

old pupil daddy


If only she were Japanese, and it were a millennium or two ago, she would have a lot of potential.

Thoughts From An Email Exchange

While home for lunch today, I received the following email from Erika...

Dear dad I can;t tell you all that much right now because I have a ton of e-mail that i have to answer right now but I promise I will get back to you as soon as possible,
Love,
Erika

----

This was in reference to the following email I had sent her:

Are you having a great time?

Can’t wait to hear all your stories.

I love you.

Dad

-------

Thoughts:

1) I don't ever remember being overwhelmed by email when I was 8 years old. Granted, the late 70's were a bit slow on the email front, but I'm not sure I remember being overwhelmed by anything when I was 8.

2) The email she is referencing is one I sent her a couple of months ago when she was up with her grandparents in Indiana. Those were the stories I was looking forward to hearing. She seems to have missed the date stamp in the midst of her frenzied email-answer-a-thon and thinks this is a current email from me.

3) I saw Erika yesterday afternoon. It doesn't seem to surprise her that I would be waiting anxiously to hear all of the stories that have accumulated in her life in the last 14-20 hours. Granted, it's summer and she's doing what kids do during the summer, that is to say very little, but still she will have stories to tell.

4) I actually am looking forward to hearing them.

Very Quick Update

Farmor and Farfar have come to visit us in Memphis. Amid the rest of the chaos, we went to Mud Island today to see a scaled down replica of the mighty Mississippi River, along with other downtown Memphis landmarks.

Only In Memphis

Joel came home from walking to Chick-fil-a. He was scared and had no food.

When dad asked him why he didn't have any food he said, "There was a cow, a D.J. and Elvis."

And so dad and me went with him with courage and numbers to get the food. As it turns out, there WAS a cow, D.J. and Elvis. It was the 50's costumers' appreciation night. There was also karaoke.

We got the food and left as fast as we possibly could.

Daily Rituals

A new daily ritual to our lives. This is similar to the device in Erika's mouth, and every morning, we will be inserting a pin into those holes to rotate the device 1/4 turn (approx .2 millimeter). One down, 4 months' worth to go.

Most Serious Yet

Today I had a very serious appliance at my orthodontist Dr. Buildings office. As you can see from the pictures they're pretty serious. Anyway where you see a bottom retainer I only have to wear it in the night. But the top one is actually glued to my teeth, and no I'm not joking they really glued it on.

Anyway that little thing I am holding is a little cleaner thing what is does is those little things on the side actually move they make the brush move back and forth so that it can get everything it needs to get. Anyway if you want to make a comment or have any questions just type them on the COMMENT button.

Growing Old

Joel's Promotion Day today... from now on he's a 6th grader. Well, once he completes his extended vacation. More pictures and videos to follow.

like the song?

Last sat., Erika did a self made play. She's the one in the jersy, it's FUNNY.

A Crew Contribution

We set up a new fish tank recently. When we do this, we purchase a few fish... they are typically given names like "ToughLuck", "Fodder", etc. Our last round involved "Thing 1" and "Thing 2."

Here's the story of one of the fish, as written by Joel, Erika, and I.

A fish named Posidon we knew
Who's original name was "Thing 2"
He outlasted his friend
Who died in the end
So tonight we'll have "Thing 2" stew

Happy Limerick Day

Today is the day we celebrate the invention of the limerick. In honor of the artform, here is a favorite:

There was an old man from Milan
Whose limericks never would scan
When told this was so
He said, 'yes, I know.
But I always try to get as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can.'

You're All Invited

I'm sure I speak on behalf of everybo... ok, on behalf of Erika, when I say you are all invited to see her perform on Saturday at 10:30 at the community theater. She's going to be wearing a basketball jersey and will be the one pretending to be slightly embarrassed by all the attention. Typecasting at it's finest.

Revenge

These things tend to go in trends and cycles, and the latest obsession around the crew seems to be funny songs on YouTube.

Here's Joel & Erika's current favorite, shared for your listening pleasure...

More Experiments

We did some experiments with Non-newtonian fluids. We all had a great time. Erikas going to bring some in to her class for show-and-tell. Take that Sir Isaac Newton!

Earth Day Experiment

To day a lot of things went on wii played with the we. I mean we played with the wii.I know that we haven't said anything about the wii, but apparently Joel got a REALLY late Christmas present.Any way we did a lot of other things to. We did an experiment I made a weather forcast. All went well.The experiment worked the weather forcast is hopefully right.And now you get to watch it all.(Exept for the wii part.)

Celebrations

There is so much to report... look for a few blogs in the next few days.

To start with, National Tuna Rights Day is today. The kids and I celebrated by having sushi. But we treated it with the utmost of respect. And wasabi.

We also celebrated what appeared to be a successful testing for second stripe Red Belt. Watch this: