Arrrrrrrr!!!

Pirates Ahoy, Matey!!!

Today we took the boys on Variety's Boat for Hope tour. We got to dress up as pirates and climb aboard a boat that was all decorated up as a pirate ship. The weather was horrible: rainy, cold and windy. But we had a GREAT time. We sailed around False Creek and had a few "ports of call" where, basically, we were "attacked" by some pirates in little dingy boats. We had to brandish our swords and the kids were armed with powerful water guns that they got to "shoot" at the invading pirates. One of the invading pirates was eating a weiner and Mike squirted him right in the hot dog. Once we had "subdued" the invading pirates, we were given some "treasure" to collect. All the kids were completely soaked [from the rain and from squirting water], but they didn't care because they were having too much fun. It was a really good day and I can't wait until next year.

All the boys getting ready to get on our pirate ship.

Mike is keeping an eye out for invading pirates.

Luke joins Mike in scouting for pirates.

Luke is inspecting the ship for any damage.

Some "invading" pirates trying to shoot us with their (water) canons.

How a Couch Destroys PS2 Controllers

I had been puzzled over the last few months on how it is that we seemed to be going through PS2 controllers faster than rolls of toilet paper. In the span of 10 months, we had gone through over half a dozen PS2 controllers. They simply stopped working. Oldest son commented on how it was only after youngest two sons were playing that the controllers were getting wrecked somehow. Inspecting the controllers showed no obvious signs of destruction: they hadn’t been yanked on or smashed; the cords hadn’t been chewed on [as youngest would do several years ago – but the things still worked]. Observing the younger two at play, they weren’t pushing the buttons any harder or doing anything to the controllers any differently than they had over many years of play. We replaced the whole PS2 system thinking that perhaps the console was to blame. Nope. Within a week of the new system in place, two more controllers bit the dust. So what on Earth was going on?

We finally figured it out. It has to do with the couch. See, we bought a new couch just under a year ago. It’s a really nice couch. A large sectional covered in a nice wine coloured faux suede type of fabric. It fits the whole family with room for a couple more.

But, how, you ask, does the couch have anything to do with the destroyed PS2 controllers? I’ll tell you. We discovered quite by accident one day that second-youngest son gets quite animated when playing video games. He wiggles and squirms and flops around on the couch. When he does this, electrons are pulled from the surface of the couch into his body. As soon as he goes to touch anyone or anything, *ZAPPPPP*. It turns out that he was building up large amounts of static electricity and frying the controllers when he’d touch them.

I went out and bought a special bracelet for him to wear when he’s playing on the PS2. It has a rubber part that goes around his wrist which is attached to a wire that we then clip to the metal frame of the coffee table. In essence, we have to “ground” him in order for him to be able to play. We’ve had the bracelet for over two weeks now and we’re still on the same controller.

A Pox Upon Your Home!

Happy New Year one and all! Informal polling of friends and family came up with a pretty tame holiday season this year. Very mellow for most. Our holiday season was no exception. I ended up with a nasty cold that just got worse as the day wore on on Christmas Day. But I managed to get through most of the day before retiring to my bed at around 7:00 p.m. Then two days later, my third son asked me what the hard spot on his lip was. At first I thought it was a wart, but couldn't figure out how it got there so quickly. When he "mentioned" that he had another spot just like it on his stomach, I knew what I was dealing with. A quick inspection of his body confirmed my suspicions, and I knew I was dealing with chickenpox. Thankfully, we really hadn't gone anywhere and everywhere we had been, everyone had already had chickenpox. We've quarantined ourselves to our home voluntarily until he isn't contagious any more. He is pretty mad that it happened now during the winter break from school and he's not going to have to miss any school for his suffering [any other time and he would have been off school for a week]. Oh, well, we'll all survive.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

Well, we've had quite a bit of snow fall around here the last few days. No snow today, but is bitterly cold. We're supposed to be getting more snow tomorrow. You have to keep in mind that while snow is common around here on the mountains and more into the Interior, it's not something we usually get a lot of in the Lower Mainland. Naturally, I couldn't help myself, so I've taken some pictures of our winter wonderland.

This is a picture of the younger boys playing in the snow in the front yard the night it started falling.

Here younger boys and dad have just come home from school on Monday. I didn't quite get the van completely cleared of snow.

This is a photo taken from the front of our house looking down the street. I just happened to catch a truck sliding sideways on the icy road.

This picture was taken from the little bridge we have to walk over to get to the kids' school. The slough looked so pretty.

And this picture is taken from our livingroom window looking out across the street.

Ho Ho Holiday Parade

So the boys and I went downtown today to march in the 3rd Annual Santa Claus Parade in Vancouver. We were invited to march with the Children's Wish Foundation. The weather was supposed to be terrible [a storm warning with strong winds and rain], but we decided that we'd dress for bad weather and go anyway. Well, a couple of minutes before the parade started, the clouds parted and the sun began shining. It actually turned out to be a gorgeous day. My favorite part of the day was being able to get a couple of pictures of the boys with some Jaffa from Stargate [filmed here in BC; they had a float in the parade].

This pic has all the boys in it.

This pic has more Jaffa in it.

Crusts and Spam

My youngest son has an aversion to crusts. He won't eat the crust on bread or toast. Lots of kids don't; they'll ask a parent to trim off the crusts. My youngest son, however, has taken this dislike of crusts to a bizzare extreme. The other day I made some pizza bagels. Cut a bagel in half, spread pizza sauce on it, smother in cheese and then bake. Below is a picture of my son's plate after he had finished eating.

So just how does one determine what the "crust" is on a bagel half? Isn't it all crust?



On a different topic, have you ever received that nonsense spam? When you open it up there is some weird and strange message/story in there? Incomplete sentences and general linguistic oddities? Normally, folks would just trash that kind of stuff. Well, someone has decided to take those spam messages and turn them into works of art. Check out "Spamland#1" on YouTube. This is the best use of spam that I have ever seen.

It's Not Fair

Today's been a hard day for me. I learned that Jon David [5-year-old] passed away this morning. He had been diagnosed and was battling the same type of cancer that my Luke had fought. Jon's mom had sent me an old laptop of hers a couple of months back. She'd read my post about how difficult it is for Luke to write and how it was thought that a laptop would really help him in his school work. Without hesitation, she sent me hers. I carry it to and from school every day. I set it up in the classroom. Today, I was thankful that there weren't too many people around because I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as I packed it up to take it home. It's not fair. No child, no family, should ever have to go through this. I try and find comfort in picturing Jon in his Superman pajamas and Diego in his Spiderman pajamas playing together with laughter in the eternal light. But then my heart aches for the families left behind. It's not fair.