Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,132 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 50 of 114).

Sitter night

Up until last night it had been a long time since I’d been a babysitter. We and our neighbors worked out an arrangement where we would take turns babysitting each others’ kids after they’d gone to bed. They stayed at our home while Kelly and I did our ARRRRR! Line Pub Crawl and it was our turn to reciprocate.

I showed up at 8 and had to settle their son once early in the evening, but after that I watched football and edited video on my laptop, all the while within wireless range of my home network. It beats the heck out of hiring a babysitter!

Plane crash

Phantom_Electric

Travis got a beginner’s RC plane for his birthday and yesterday we decided to fly it for the first time. The family (plus dog) piled into the minivan and headed for Horseshoe Farm Park.

Horseshoe is the perfect place to fly an RC plane: a large, open, grassy field with few people around. I tied up the dog to the barn and the kids played nearby while Kelly assembled the plane. We warned the kids that this could end in disaster because it was the first time we flew and they seemed okay with it. We followed all the pre-flight checks, though the wind was a bit stronger than we anticipated. Ignoring this, Kelly hand-launched the plane into the wind as I cranked up the throttle.
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Busy weekend

Let’s see:
Thursday: Conn Showcase
Friday: march and Zydecopious at Seaboard Music
Saturday: Sailing at Lake Gaston, Halloween, and hanging out with our cool neighbors.
Sunday: cleaning, lounging, MythTV-fixing, game-playing, bread-making, Trader Joe’s-shopping

That’s a pretty full four days! As for this week, tonight I go to a Parks and Rec committee meeting and that’s all there is on my schedule for the week. Next week I have a Mordecai meeting and the following week I have my East CAC, Raleigh CAC, and Parks Board meetings.

Hip hop, ya don’t stop.

Yet another GPS talk at Conn

Friday afternoon I did my latest talk about GPS to Mrs. Jarrett’s 5th-grade module at Conn Elementary. It rocked! The kids were so engaged I talked long after the end-of-class bell had sounded. I think it was my best talk yet!

This time I spoke with not just Mrs. Jarrett’s class but another one, too! It was so much fun to see the wheels turning in the kids’ heads as I would pose a question and wait for them to figure it out. Half the kids’ hands would shoot up every time I did that. This time around there were several kids who obviously knew their stuff which made it easier for me to make my points.

What a thrill it is to get kids engaged in learning. Makes me think that I may have made a good teacher if I only I had the patience to be a good student first!

Action-packed birthday weekend

Wow, it’s been quite a busy weekend! Travis’s birthday is today so we spent much of the weekend celebrating. Travis’s official birthday party was a pool party at Pullen Pool. There were dozens of his friends there and lots of fun had. We went home from there to clean up and then it was off to the Haunted Mordecai event at Mordecai Historic Park. The threat of rain kept things a bit low-key there but we did enjoy the “haunted” tour.

This morning we woke at 7 and got to the fairgrounds by 9 to beat the crowds. It was like a ghost town there until 10 AM when the rides officially opened. We all had fun just walking around and looking at things. After 10, we put the kids on a kiddie roller coaster and watched them have a blast. Next we played a few impossible-to-win carny games before we ordered some French fries to eat while we walked to the Ferris wheel. Travis was unsure of the Ferris wheel and took a lot of convincing before he decided to try it. Boy was he glad he did! He chattered non-stop while we were cruising around it.

We got home from the fair, ate lunch, and then puttered a bit around the house. I couldn’t pry the kids away from watching a video, so I headed out alone to Lions Park to watch the cyclocross taking place there. After only being there a few minutes I could see that this was an amazing event and called Kelly to bring the kids. We spent the next 45 minutes cheering on the racers as they rode their bikes around the challenging course. It was very exciting!

Now the kids are tucked in bed and I’m feeling like the zombies that walked downtown Raleigh last night. Hopefully I’ll be well-rested by the time I leave for work tomorrow!

Beautiful fall morning

It’s unusually mild and breezy this morning, not sunny but pleasantly overcast. The wind is gently ushering yellowing leaves off their perches. It was extremely relaxing to walk through the breezy neighborhood streets with the dog this morning, knowing we were safe from rain for now but the showers would soon begin.

A morning like this just makes me feel so alive!

I’ve fired my doctor

This morning I fired my doctor. There have been too many instances where I left a message for someone to do a simple thing such as refill a prescription and either the request has been ignored or done incorrectly. In both cases I was never notified that any action had been taken – it was up to me to follow up. Unacceptable. And I’ve heard this same thing from my friends who also were his patients.

It was also hard to actually see my doctor when I needed it. Frequently his schedule was only open weeks in advance and I would wind up seeing another doctor. Not cool. Then there’s the location: my doctor’s office is in Cary while I’m in Raleigh. I don’t want to spend more time driving to and from his office than I do actually being seen by the doctor.
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East CAC history lesson

Tonight’s East CAC meeting was an unforgettable one. Not only was I honored to be reelected as CAC Chair, but a group of about 15 Pakistanis were here to observe an American civic meeting. After that we had a number of members tell us about the history of our area, many of these folks having lived here for almost 40 years.

The real treat in my mind was to hear from a descendant of the original property owners who once owned the property surrounding Lions Park. The history of the land was traced back to 1851 when it was purchased from the Mordecais! Even venerable old Saint Augustine’s College wouldn’t come into existence for another 16 years.

It was fascinating! I never knew there used to be a pond right in the middle of our neighborhood, or that a stream existed at the bottom of Fenton Street, or that Pigeon House Branch creek was once clean enough to drink, or that many picnics were held at the bottom of Fenton, where a beautiful wooded ravine once stood.

The “history lesson” meeting was so much fun that we’ll have to do another one soon!

Simple pleasures

Kelly’s volunteering at Hallie’s school this morning, so I’m working from home and had to take charge of the kids. Both of them needed to be delivered to Conn so we walked down Edmund Street together. Before we were past our friend Randy’s house we saw our friends the Bettis following us, so we waited for Lorenzo, his mom Veronica, his brother Nicolo, and their dog to catch up. We picked up Oscar at his house, too, making us quite a gaggle!

I’d forgotten just how much fun it is to walk Hallie to school. Today’s walk was a bonus!