Parentheticals

Timmy attended his martial arts class again on Monday and Tuesday. He had a lot of fun and learned more things. On Wednesday Sara went to acting class, which she also enjoys a lot. Alison and Sara took the train to get to the class, which took about the same amount of time to get there as the car because of traffic. The eventual plan is to have Sara take the train to get to the class, however it doesn't seem like that is going to happen immediately. On Thusday we went to a combined Waters family birthday party. The party was at Buck's house since he was also apparently having a birthday too. We ate potluck, had cake, played No Thanks, and various other things. It was pretty fun. On Friday we were invited to see a horse show by the Poulsons. Becky went into labor, so the adult Rogers were not there, however we had fun with the grandparents and the younger Rogers. The horses were impressive, and we also saw the knights do jousting and other combat sports. The four horse "Yod...

On Saturday of last week we got a watermelon at Maceys and brought it home and put it on the counter because Timmy had requested watermelon with his dinner. Monday morning when mike woke up he stepped in a puddle in the kitchen. After some looking around he discovered that the watermelon had ruptured. Apparently the thing was infected with some sort of gas producing bacteria (perhaps yeast?) and its internal pressure was too much for it. When he picked it up the middle fell out (though the shell was still mostly strong). That was a disappointment. Later on Monday we picked a bunch of apples at the Payne's house and then Mike went to help Grandpa Mike to get his computer printer working. The apples have been really good, and we have made almost 5 gallons of apple chips already. Timmy  has joined a martial arts dojo because he has wanted to start learning a martial art. The one that we found was mixed Judo and Ju-jitsu and Muay Thai twice a week. He liked it, so we signed him up for ...

This week Alison and the kids went to the zoo, thanksgiving point, and the library to get Italian books (to get in the mood for Italy). It was a busy week. Rea took some pictures at the zoo. Here is one of the best ones: On Monday Mike started another semester of teaching CS 101. This time he is teaching two classes simultaneously, which has been so far doable. Finals might be a little crazy, but aside from finals, the first week of a new class is the hardest part. On Tuesday, Mike was biking to work, and both of his brakes on his bike quit working (half way down a hill). He finished his trip very carefully, and then when he went home, he fixed them both (replacing the disk brakes pads, and tightening the pad brakes). Hopefully that won't happen again. We are leaving for Italy in 2 weeks and 2 days, so we have been spending a lot of time getting ready for that over the last week. The kids are watching muzzy, and we are trying to remember all of the last minute things that ...

I just noticed that this blog has gone 4 years without a comment on it! I know that people read it, and even talk to us about it, but apparently it doesn't incite people to comment on the blog. Early this week Mike looked into getting a Masters degree. He could get a 100% tuition grant, but only after he has worked at this place for a full year. He is probably going to do it, so that everyone will have to call him Master Brown. He also started to bike to work again, since he has a job that is so close to home. The hill is still a killer, but it is still doable. The kids went to Martial Arts class this week on Tuesday. They enjoyed it as usual. At the same time Mike went to the BGDG meeting, and he played one of his games, and also a game by another member of the guild. On Wednesday was Timmy's date night. He chose to have ice cream and a movie. It was fun. On Friday Mike realized that we needed to get international drivers licenses to drive in Italy. We got some the s...

Alison and the kids went outside a lot this week, and almost every day the kids got to play with the Dalyais. That made it one of the best weeks for the kids. It's nice to have good homeschooling friends. It also gave Alison time to work on rewriting the science curriculum she loves into a more usable form. Alison has also been working about two hours every night this week (one time she had 5 back to back English classes). She made almost $200 last week, which is pretty good considering all that she does is teach on the computer from 5:00 - 7:00 (before the kids get up). On Tuesday Mike went to his design guild meeting, and presented his witch hunt game. He made a 9 card version of it, which was very well received. Mike also got back a rejection from a publisher for "The Citadel of Madness" this week, so he is going to shop it around a bit more, as he thinks that it is a great game. While he was at the BGDG, Alison and the kids went to their martial arts class. It h...

This week Mike called and asked a local repair shop how much it would cost to fix his phone. The price that they quoted was more than the price to buy a new phone, so he just ordered the parts, and planned on fixing it himself. All the parts have arrived, but no matter how many screwdrivers he bought he couldn't find one the right size to open the phone up. So, now he has the parts, but can't actually fix the phone yet. He has another screwdriver on the way that will hopefully work this time. We sold our chickens on Monday to an old guy. We decided that finding chicken sitters for the trip to Italy would be too hard, and since we already are leaving the goats at the stud, we will be able to get by without any pet sitters as long as we release (or eat) the grasshoppers before we go. Speaking of the grasshoppers: we have about four right now in the aquarium. The kids haven't decided to eat them yet, so we are just taking care of them and feeding and watering them regularl...