scout night at the Frederick Keys

scout night at the Frederick Keys
Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Last Saturday PJ, Sam and I headed up to Frederick, MD to see a minor league. It was "scout night", which was a special they run for all members of boy and girl scouts in the local area. It was a great deal, only three dollars for each of us to get in, not counting food. But it included the game, fireworks afterwards, and a big campout and a movie in the outfield after the game.

The Frederick Keys are a farm team for the Baltimore Orioles, and I think they realize that they need to keep it fun to keep people coming in the door. And they really try -- I really felt like I was appreciated, and everyone working at the stadium had a great attitude.

We left around 4:30pm, and the drive took about thirty minutes, during which PJ managed to lose his cub scout hat without ever leaving the car. How do you do that? We got to the parking lot, and filed in and sat in the lawn just outside first base. This is a whole lot nicer than it may sound. The kids could get up and run around any time they wanted to. There was a little playground just behind us for the kids to go if they got bored. Awesome.

We got some pretzels and popcorn and sat down. PJ and Sam went up to the fence and were eating their popcorn when suddenly, one of them dumped the bag of popcorn over the fence. PJ came up to me and asked if he could jump over the fence to which I said no, when the relief pitcher of the Keys, who happened to be sitting on a bench near to where PJ spilled the popcorn, ran over, scooped up the popcorn, grabbed a cup for himself, handed Sam back the popcorn and high-fived him, and then ran back to the dugout with a big grin. The kids ate it up.

After the game they let all the kdis run the bases. I mean *all* the kids, and it took a while. But everyone is smiling, and then when the bases were done they had fireworks, sponsored by the US Army, and it was a great show, made better by the fact that the were launching the fireworks just behind the stadiumand the fireworks were practically on top of us.

After the fireworks we had to leave the field, and then pack up our gear and get back in line to go back inside for camping. Once back, in, we all watched a movie on the big Jumbotron display. "Madagascar 2" in this case. By the time the movie had finished it was about 1AM, and we all crashed pretty quickly. They played Revelry at 6:30AM and we had to get out of there by 7, so it was a short night's sleep but in every other way it was really and incredible evening.

Anna graduates 5th grade!

Anna had her graduation cermony tonight. Not a real graduation like from high school or college, but one of those made up graduations, in this case from fifth grade.

I know I start to sound like an old fart when I say things like "When I was her age we didn't graduate until high school" but that is honestly about all I could think about during the ceremony. And it was a long ceremony, complete with multiple musical interludes allowing each class in turn to regale us with their xylophone bravado. All recorded on a multitude of parental videotaping equipment. Huzzah!

Well, anyway, I suppose it is a good thing that accomplishment is encouraged, and it was great to see Anna and her friends up on stage, all so proud about that they have accomplished.

Friday near the end of the School Year

Anna and I rode our bicycles to and from her school yesterday. It was a lot of fun. It was one of the last days in the school year. She was very excited. She pointed out some weeds growing in a runoff drain and said "You see, its important for me to see wild plants like this. There are less and less of them around on the world these days."

Of course, this meant that I had to ride all of the way to school, and then ride back home. And then in the afternoon I had to ride all the way to school and then back with Anna. Actually, in the afternoon I was running a little late and had to sprint all the way to school to make it their on time.

The ride from our house to the school is awesome, the whole way is on bike paths. On the way, Anna made a point of saying hello to everyone she went past on the bike path. Not surprisingly, everyone said hello to her back, usually with a smile.

Later that evening there was a Girl Scout campout. I use the term loosely, because the camput was in the backyard of a friend's house, and they have a pool. Of course, this reminds me of a joke. How many Girl Scouts does it takes to set up a tent?

Answer: None! -- Just get your dad (the troop leaders husband) to do it! I got commisioned into setting up our tent, and then setting up someone else's large tent that I had never seen before. ("Oh, honey, you're so good at setting up tents, would you mind setting up Jeremy's tent also?") After all of that I was about ready for bed, so I grabbed the boys and headed home.

Of course the boys didn't want to leave because they were both in their elements; PJ was swimming in the pool and Sam was hanging out with a bunch of older women. But I packed them up and headed home. Once I got home, a friend of PJ's stopped by and asked if PJ could go for a sleepover at his house. Sweet! 2 down, 1 to go. I got PJ out the door, and then Sam and I sat down to a game of "Who cut the cheese."

After the game, I made a large bowl of popcorn and Sam and I sat down to watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" which surprisingly Sam enjoyed a lot. He fell asleep halfway through it though. After watching him sleep for about ten minutes I carefully picked him up and carried him up the stairs. About halfway up the staircase he stiffened, and tried to stand up while I was carrying him. "What are you doing?" he asked me.

"I was just bringing you upstairs to take a rest."

"No! I want to watch the movie." He said. I sighed. I took him back down the stairs and put him on the chair again, where he slept until the movie was over.

Finally I got Sam into bed, by which time I had time to myself, of course I just wanted to go to sleep by then. But I figured I was doing pretty good for a Friday.

Saving Electricity

Sam comes rushing into the kitchen around 8 o'clock tonight, plunging me into darkness while I am trying to clean up.

"Dad, we have to save electricity by turning the lights off!"

Big pause. "Sam, could you turn the light back on please."

"But we have to save electricity!" I am guessing that they just showed something on tv dealing with this issue.

"Well, Sam, that is great except that I am in the kitchen, and if you wanted to save electricity maybe should turn off the tv, the xbox, the wii, and the lights when you leave the basement. I think its okay to have the lights on if you are actually in the room."

"OK." Sam dissappeared into the basement.

happy mothers day

happy mothers day
Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Anna made this in class using Microsoft Publisher, and the words are all her own. She said it much better than I ever could. Happy mother's day!

by Anna Shaw "For my dear mother on her special day"

Mother
Dear Mother, I love you,
Though sometimes I despise you,
you will always have a place in my heart.

Good times and bad,
Funny and sad,
You have been through them all.

My first work to mind about you,
Is awesome and giving,
Sweet, happy, smart, and don't forget loving,
No matter what,
I will always love you.

PJ Breaks his foot!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

PJ broke his foot (3rd break so far for those who are counting). This proves, once again, the danger involved in walking into a Wal-Mart while doing a goofy walk and not paying attention. The cast will only be on for ten days, however, because PJ can luckily heal his bones as quickly as he can break them.

Rain Barrels in our Garden!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

We are gonna be getting our veg on this summer! Kathleen has managed to turn herself into quite the econaut, taking a class with the county on how to build the rain barrels, and then actually building them.

For my part I dug up all the grass, and moved the old fence we are no longer using to provide a deer barrier. "I don't want to put out a buffet" as Kathleen put it.

It is about twelve by fourteen feet. Very cool.

Sam looses his first tooth!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Happy Easter!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

April Fools day

Yesterday morning, as I was shaving, Sam came into the bathroom.  He didn't say anything to me, he just went to the shower and bathroom and methodically removed the bars of soap from them.

"Sam, what are you doing?" I asked him.

"I am playing an April fools day trick."  He told me.

"But that was yesterday."

"I don't care."  he said and ran off with the soap.

Vacation table

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Click on the photo to read notes on our vacation stuff!

travel from heck

I am writing this in a dark hotel room a 5am on a Sunday morning. A bad smelling hotel room that looks out over a shell gas station somewhere near an Atlanta airport that I don't want to be at. It was one of those days.

Initially the travel was okay. We sadly checked out of our hotel room after a pleasant week of vacation. I returned the rental car, and had a minor freak-out after they charged me more than they said they would.

Got on the plane, made it to Atlanta on time. We had two hours to make our connection. But there were thunderstorms. And planes, lots and lots and lots of planes. Because of the storms we were forced to circle Atlanta for half an hour. Finally we landed.

Once landed, our gate was not empty and they had no where to deplane us. We spend another half an hour in the airport on the tarmac.

Once we finally got off the plane. We had the two immigration lines to go through. We were going to miss our fight but no one cared, it seemed like everyone was missing flights. The flight departing Atlanta and leaving for Dulles was leaving on time.

Once we finally made it through customs we could go and wait in another line, at the Delta desk. They kept mumbling and told us that they would give us a voucher. At first to the Ramada, but it was full so they 'upgraded' us to a voucher to the Wellesley Inn, which was 'much nicer'. The Ramada must have been a real cesspool.

We go out to the get a shuttle to our new crappy hotel room. Of course there are a million people waiting for shuttles. I find some strange man with a van who says he will take us and a few other random strangers to the hotel for 5$ each. The strangers are dropped off at the MicroTel, and it looks clean and new. I eagerly await our upgraded room at the Westin.

We get dropped off at the Westin. Unfortunately the voucher is for the Wellesley and its on the other side of the airport. I am too cheap to pay the difference and so we cab it across the Atlanta Airport again, this time landing at the Wellsley.

There is a Disco in the Lobby. People in shiny shirts and dresses are milling around. I ask for a room. I ask if the room will be quiet, and the man behind the desk cracks a smile and says "It will be unless you make some noise!" Its around 1am and we have to be at the airport at 6:15am, so we ask for a wake up call around 5:45, it calls us at 4:15am, and here I am.

goin on a vacation!

Well, its that time of year again and Kathleen and I are going someplace warm on vacation (yeah!) and we're not bringing the kids with us (double yeah!). The grandmothers are descending upon our house to watch the children. I think every year the kids get a little bit easier to watch, and as a result the liquor consumption goes up. But I can only guess, and really, will not look a gift horse in the mouth.

PJ ASSISTS ME IN MY SELF ESTEEM

Tonight we had cub scouts. I have bringing Sam, who is really enthusiastic about being a cub scout next year, and always wants to go. This contrasts with PJ, who likes Cub Scouts in theory, but in practice is a perennial curmudgeon about actually getting dressed and going out the door.

So every Thursday I take Sam, who is not a Cub Scout, but can't get out the door fast enough, and PJ, who is a Cub Scout but claims he would rather not be, to a meeting. Once there, all is well, the kids have fun, and we manage to lose one or two pieces of Cub Scout clothing in the space of an hour.

Back at home, we have our snack, and its time for bed. PJ is looking at me making a smoothie for myself. I am putting in fresh grapefruit, strawberries, yogurt, all good stuff.

"Dad, are you still on a low carb diet?"

I take some honey and squeee it into the blender. "No, I'm not dieting right now, why?"

"Well, I just think that if you have a ton of weight its okay." He doesn't say 'ton of weight to lose', so I'm not sure what that means exactly.

"What do you mean, PJ, do you think I don't need to lose weight?"

He pauses thoughtfully. My seven year old is speaking to me in the cadence of a psychiatrist. "I just think, that if you weight a lot, well, I don't have a problem with that."

"Thanks PJ," and I don't know what else to say, so I just end it with "now go to bed." I guess he thinks I'm fat but loves me anyway, and just wanted me to know it in a kind and loving way. I gotta admit, he did cheer me up.

PJ Sings "We are the world"

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Well, not really, but it was his class musical, and he was part of the Mexican group. Its a bit blurry, but you can see him right there in the middle.

The mad scientist and her laboratory

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Digging up Sod

Another big skip. Sometimes it feels like this blog is an obligation, something to check off of my to-do list. And weeks go by when I don't write anything. And so much happens.

They say that as you get older the days fly by faster and its true. I remember when summer vacation seemed to last forever, and now the summer goes by in a heartbeat.

Sam is starting to sound out words and read short sentences now. He doesn't think he can read but he really can. He's getting big. All or children our kids now. We need to start thinking about packing them all into the family truckster and driving cross-country to wally world.

I worked all day in the garden yesterday, pulling up sod to make room for Kathleen's new, expanded, garden. Kathleen is very into vegetables. I also cleaned out the composter. Our first foray into composting was a failure, the stuff we put out into it just rotted and became incredibly bad-smelling. This only endeared us more with our neighbors.

The weather has been stop and go lately. Typical Virginia weather, it can not decide weather it is the spring or the winter. On last Monday school was canceled with eight inches of snow. By Saturday it was in the seventies and beautiful outside, and by Sunday I was digging up the lawn to make room for Kathleen's farmlet.

Sam turns 6!! Happy Birthday Sam!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

VALENTINES DAY - AND OTHER EVENTS

Yesterday we celbrated valentines day. My present to Kathleen was to take the children to the movies. PJ and sam wanted to see 'Coraline' as did I. Anna wanted to see 'Hotel for Dogs'. We eventually reached the compromise of Anna taking a friend with her, and them going to see their movie while PJ, Sam, and I saw our own movie.

First we stopped at the 7-11, because no movie can be properly enjoyed without illicit candy. We go in, and immediately an argument ensues, because Anna can not believe that she has to buy candy that costs less than two dolllars, and she can only get one. Of course she could always spend her own money, but that really never was an option. So we get the candy settled, and Anna and her friend get, and suddenly PJ is missing.

I look all over the 7-11, its not that big a place, and when I knock on the bathroom door, I hear PJ's voice saying "I'll be right out!"

Only he isn't right out. The rest of us get our candy and go out to the car and wait, and I run back in a few moments later, and PJ is still in the bathroom. I bang on the door again, and the man behind the counter is staring at me. I say to the door, "PJ, we need to go to a movie very soon, you need to finish up."

PJ replies with the exact same phrase as before. "I'll be right out!" I knock again.

"Let me in PJ." I say, a little more serious this time.

PJ lets me in the bathroom and there is water all over the floor. I look around. The toilet is overflowing, and there is a clump of brown paper towels stuck in the bottom of it, clogging it up.

"PJ, did you put the paper in the toilet?" I say.

"Uh, no, it was there when I came in." He says in almost a whisper. He is looking at the floor.

I make PJ shuffle over to the man at the 7-11 and apologize. He is good natured about it. He says "no problem" and we leave.

I don't know what to do. I am embarassed, and mad at PJ, and don't know what he was doing. I call Kathleen and drop him back off at home. I find out later that he didn't mean to clog the toilet, he couldn't find any toilet paper and when it got clogged he got scared. But I didn't know that then.

Anyway, we go to the movies, and it was fun. Expensive fun. I got the tickets. Anna and her friend go to there movie. Sam starts running through the lobbie, zig-zagging past the girl taking tickets, like some kind of leprechaun.

One of the presents Sam got for valentines day is edible candy paper. Sam tells me he is making a valentine for Anna that says "I Hate You" and he is going to stick it in her mouth to make sure she remembers it. Anna really gets under the skin of her brothers.

This is also a three day weekend and we are takiing it very easy and enjoying the break from routine.

Dana The Darg Ep. 1

Dana The Darg Ep. 1
Originally uploaded by peteshaw

My daughter, the filmmaker.

Having Hot Cocoa before bed

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Sam's gift for Dad

I almost forgot to tell one of the funnier stories of the holidays. Kathleen took Sam shopping for Christmas gifts, and he proudly bought presents for brother and sister, and for his dad. At the time, Kathleen told me, "I can't tell you now without giving it away, but remind me when you get his present, because I have a really funny story to tell you."

Kathleen then proceeded to tell everyone I know this story, always when I was out of earshot. Then everyone would look at me and giggle and say something like, "that's pretty funny." But i wouldn't hear anything more and eventually I forgot about it.

On Christmas day, I opened Sam's gift and it was the board game 'who cut the cheese'. Evidently at the time Sam didn't understand the figure of speech, so Kathleen explained it to him in the store. At the checkout line, Sam proudly told the cashier, "I got my dad 'Who cut the cheese' because he's the FARTER in our family!"

The cashier told Sam "I think you should tell your dad that when he gets your present' and tried (unsuccessfully) to keep from laughing.

Christmas Timeline Part IV

On Monday the 28th, Mike and I had to leave early because we had a trailer full of trash that needed to be left at the dump. Mike got a chance to see Loudoun County's state of the art (and expensive) waste management facility, and as an added bonus we got to argue with the personnel there over just what exactly an air conditioner is anyways, and why do I have to give you fifteen dollars for each of them?

Moving along after that, I had plugged my snazzy new GPS system into the family truckster (this will become important later), and we drove over to Kathleen's parent's house in Vienna to drop off the trailer. Now, we have to go from Vienna, VA all the way up to BWI airport to pick up my mom. I wasn't sure about the exact route, so I plug it into my snazzy new GPS system, and start following its vaguely pleasant-toned instructions. It takes us directly across Washington, DC, crossing the Anacostia river and getting on 295 north, and taking that straight up to the Baltimore airport. Oddly enough, we get there on time. Mike darts in, I make a couple of slow laps around the airport, I pick up Mike and Mom, and we are off. This time I programmed the GPS with the location of a brewpub in Frederick, Maryland, and told it to 'avoid highways'. What fun!

Ten minutes later we are driving through someone's neighborhood somewhere in Baltimore Suburbia. Some people are playing frisbee in there front yard, I notice. Eventually we get through the neighborhood, and begin a series of twisty, hillly, roads. Mike starts threating to throw up to carsickness, but eventually we do make it to the brewpub. They even have lifelike statues of the Blues Brothers and we pause for photos after quaffing a few frosty cold ones and some appetizers.

After this, we headed straight home, managing to make a one hour trip into a four hour one. Kathleen, Loretta, and the children had gone and seen 'Marley and Me' during the day.

Next -- New Years eve, and Dixieland Jazz in Leesburg

Shaw family at Christmas/New years

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Live from the cafeteria of the American History Museum in Washington, DC, on Tuesday December 30th.

But where the hell was the food? This cafeteria had no food whatsoever! It was bizarre. Only three huge coolers of Coke, and a half dozen tuna sandwiches.

Great photo tho. Props to the kind stranger who took it.

Christmas Timeline Part III

On Friday, the day after Christmas, I worked at home, and got a few errand done in the evening. It had gotten curiously warm out, and PJ was deep into his video gaming bender. Sam was still in the pajamas he was wearing on Christmas Day.

Saturday, I had to drive up to Hagerstown, MD and empty out a storage unit a tenant had left almost thirty tires, and a great variety of all things most heinous in. It was a gruesome task. Several trips to the local dump and eight hours later, I headed home. Presumable the kids were doing things during the day, but when I got home, PJ was looking kind of Haggard and was still on his video game bender. Sam was still in his Christmas pajamas.

Sunday, we had to clean the house out in the morning, because Uncle Mike and Aunt Loretta and Molly and Andrew were driving down to stay with us! The kids were very excited about this. Also, I had the opportunity to participate in the World's Largest Online Poker Tournament! It had 35,000 players from around the world, and only cost ten dollars to enter.

Mike and Loretta showed up around Two. We unpacked and proceeded to continue the festivities we had started a week ago. Christmas is exhausting! Mike got a chance to 'sweat' me playing in the tournament, and watch over my shoulder as I played, which was a lot of fun for both of us.

Up next: Nina arrives!

Christmas timeline part II

The kids come down the stairs on Christmas morning and they are very excited. I fire up the dvd player and start recording. The way it works is that first we open the presents that Santa has left, and the stockings, and then later when Kathleen's mom and dad show up we open more family presents. PJ gets 'Sonic Chronicles Unleashed' in the first box he opens and immediately wants to run downstairs and play that one game for the rest of the entire day. We don't let him, and so he grumpily continued to open presents, while repeatedly saying that he really didn't want to be here.

Anna got a video camera that stopped working after two minutes. I explained to her that even though it was a gift to her from Santa that I could probably still get warranty repair from the manufacturer. Then we got into a brief back and forth about even Santa can't make everything himself these days, that the box clearly says 'made in china' and how Santa probably has some sort of technology department that handles these things, but it might be easier to just go back to the manufacturer. Crisis averted.

PJ got a bicycle, and looked at it like it was a sweater-vest. Maybe he'll use it this summer.

It was unusually warm for a Christmas day, and the kids actually spent some time outside playing on the cul-de-sac.

Sam got a Road Ripper, which is this car that makes noise and moves around in a scary and threatening way. All five year old boys love these things, its amazing. Unfortunately the car was lost down the storm drain, and we couldn't get to it.

It was a quiet and relaxing day, we all had a great time. But the party isn't over yet. Three days later my family shows up from New York, and the holidays continue!