NHL Archives - Page 16 of 39

Spiders, Itchiness and Dizzying Heights

September 14, 2011 TechyDad Bug, NHL, Outside, Photos

I’m sitting here scratching my legs, arms, and neck. Why, you ask? Last night, our handyman stopped by to fix some stuff on the outside of our house. The kids wanted to see what was going on so we let them outside. Then, quickly getting bored of guys standing on a van’s roof inspecting siding, they decided to play with some balls instead.

While they did this, I took the opportunity to go to our tomato plants. You see, I had watered them earlier and noticed a big, brown spider on one. A kind of spider that I haven’t seen before. Being the geeky bug photographer that I am, I tried to get a photo of him. Unfortunately, the shy spider sensed my efforts and crawled to the safety of the underside of a tomato leaf. While I was in my work clothes, I wasn’t going to get onto the ground to get a good photo.

Luckily, I was now in casual clothing. So down on the ground I went, positioned my lens pointing up, and captured a few shots of the mystery spider.

Here’s a crop of the original so you can better see him since I know you all are so eager to see it up close and personal. (Don’t forget to click the photos to see them larger.)

I even got a shot of the spider on its web. This is the spider’s underbelly. Would this count as spider-porn? Look at that cephalothorax!

Getting back to the itchiness, though. As night descended and our handyman finished up his work, I began to get the boys ready to go in. At about this time, I began to realize that I was itching. Not just from one spot either, but all over. It felt like my legs and arms were on fire. I suddenly realized that all of our running and playing had turned me into a mosquito all-you-can-eat buffet.

We shuttled the boys in and we all took showers. I scrubbed extra-hard with an abrasive shower scrub brush. It might not have been the best thing for me, but it felt SOOOO good. Sadly, the itching continued well into the night and the next day.

Just to end on a non-itchy note, I’ll flash back to the weekend when we went to a local amusement park for the last time this season. The last time the boys went with B, she was alone and thus NHL couldn’t go on the bigger kid rides. (B couldn’t go on with him and leave JSL alone. Neither would NHL go on them by himself.) This time, though, we were able to split up. NHL and I headed for the rollercoaster and Ferris Wheel. JSL and B went to the more little kid-friendly rides.

As we boarded the rollercoaster, I realized I had made a horrible mistake. I left my camera at home! Bad, photographer geek! Therefore there is no photographic evidence of our thrilling rollercoaster trip. (Well, mildly thrilling. It’s a small rollercoaster for a small amusement park.)

As we boarded the Ferris Wheel, I remembered my camera phone. Of course, my fear of falling kicked in once we got to the top. The rocking cart, long way down and very windy air at the top all factored in. Still, I managed to shoot a few pics before fear completely took over and I clutched my phone close to me as if it were going to leap out of my hands and plummet down.

As we were up in the air, I even spotted B and JSL heading for a ride. We yelled at them and they finally looked up. B took a photo of us hanging in the air.

Next time we go (which will have to be next year), I’ll need to take my camera up with me. Yes, I’ll brave my fears if it means getting a nice photo. Geekiness overrules fear in my book!

Update: Thanks to @reptileadventur, we now know that our mystery spider is a marbled orb-weaver, Araneus marmoreus. From this website, I learned that it doesn’t bite humans, but dines on flying insects. (Given my recent encounters with mosquitoes, I say dine away Mrs. Spider!) I also found out that it builds its web at dusk every day and waits there or in a nearby retreat. Once an insect hits the web, “the spider runs out and wraps the prey in silk. After the prey is immobilized, the prey is bitten and eventually eaten.” Yummy!

Zip, Whip and Pee, Broken Mommy, Mini-Golf and Ice Cream

September 7, 2011 TechyDad Fun, JSL, NHL, Photos

The day before school started, we decided to do something fun with the boys. First, we went to CVS and then to Home Depot to look for a new doorbell. Oh wait, that’s not fun. That’s ok, though, because the next place was fun: Uno Chicago Grill, or, as the boys call it Pizza Uno’s. NHL got a pepperoni pizza. (Ah, my Kosher Boy!) JSL got Mac and Cheese (his all time favorite food). B and I both got the Spinoccoli pizza lunch special. This came with unlimited soup. We both wound up eating only soup and packing our pizza for another meal. (Nothing like getting 2 meals for the price of one!)

After our meal, we walked around the mall for a bit and stopped by Border’s. They’ve been going out of business for the past month or so and the selection really was bare. We managed to find a few items, but JSL was not having a good time. He didn’t understand why there weren’t any toys or kids’ books left. Going Out of Business and Clearing Stock mean nothing to a four year old.

After the mall, we planned to go indoor miniature golfing. NHL had gone here before with me, but JSL and B had never been. However, there was something important to take care of first. We high-tailed it home to put our leftovers in the fridge. Even more important, though was potty breaks for everyone. As NHL was going, B & I began doing the “potty dance.” B lamented her complicated pants. There was a tie, buttons, and a zipper. I think a combination lock might have been in there somewhere. Gloating, I said that I had it easy. All I had to do was “zip, whip, and pee.” Unfortunately, laughing hysterically does not go well with swimming back teeth. There was a real risk of peeing my pants. It didn’t help that NHL’s response to hearing that B couldn’t “zip, whip, and pee” was “Mommy’s broken!”

Luckily, my bladder held out and we went on to indoor mini-golf. JSL was instantly entertained by the black light causing everything to glow. His socks, shorts, ball, fingertips and even his teeth were glowing. The indoor course is divided into four parts.

Underwater.

Jungle.

Dinosaurs.

Outer Space.

After mini-golfing, we decided to get some ice cream. NHL and JSL got Mint Cookie Crumble (mint ice cream with chocolate cookie crumble and fudge swirls). B got Crumbs Along the Mohawk (graham cracker ice cream with graham cracker pieces and a caramel swirl). I got Mud Season (coffee ice cream with brownie dough pieces and a peanut butter fudge swirl).

We all had a blast. There’s nothing like laughter, mini-golf and ice cream to wind down summer vacation!

How did you celebrate the end of summer vacation?

The Power of Teachers: A Hope For A Great Third Grade

September 6, 2011 TechyDad NHL, School

Last year was a rough year for NHL. We struggled through most of the year trying to find some way for him to fit into the class’ structure. Nothing we came up with worked. (Or rather, should I say, nothing we suggested was fully implemented to give it a chance to work.) A bullying incident was the final straw and NHL was moved to another school.

Luckily, the bullying was a blessing in disguise as this new school and NHL took to each other instantly. The administrators and teachers knew just how to handle NHL to keep him interested and engaged and NHL loved school again. He even cried when school ended because he didn’t want to stop learning.

As the school year starts up again, NHL didn’t cry about going back to school. He was nervous, to be sure, but they were normal going-back-to-school nerves and not a desire to stay away from the school itself. He’s actually excited to go into the third grade. (Side Note: How did I become the parent of a third grader? Wasn’t he just a baby? I think I need to go over my old physics equations to find out why if Relativity can prove that time speeds up a child’s aging process. Side Side Note: Must find a way to keep JSL four.)

Thinking back, I recall my transition from the second grade to the third grade. I had an awful second grade. My teacher, Mrs. D, hated kids, especially didn’t like boys and despised me. She would make fun of me in front of the class, give me “special work” to do every night (the same assignment which she wouldn’t grade – my mother made me hand in the same paper every day and she never caught on), told me I’d never succeed in life, and generally made my life miserable. I remembered going to the in-classroom bathroom just to escape her for a few minutes. I also remember actually being happy that I got the chicken pox because it meant I didn’t need to see Mrs. D for awhile. Yes, itchy scabs all over my body were preferable to Mrs. D.

Obviously, I wasn’t sure about the third grade. If Mrs. D was any indication of which way school was headed, I was going to be miserable for a long time. Then, I met Mrs. S. Where Mrs. D was mean and hated kids/me, Mrs. S was nice and loved kids. This year we happened to have reading tests to place us into reading groups. Mrs. S noticed that I got a good score on the “normal reading group” test. She wanted me to take the advanced reading group’s test. At her urging, I did and wound up doing well on that one. So I was moved into the advanced reading group.

Advanced reading groups led to advanced level courses and then to AP/College Level courses. Many of my successes in life and desire to learn new things, I trace back to Mrs. S. Had she been a Mrs. D-clone, I would likely have hated school and dropped out at the first opportunity. My life would have certainly gone down a much worse path. This one teacher saw potential in me and did her best to bring it out. She succeeded and, wherever she is, I thank her. I hope that NHL’s third grade teacher can bring the best out of NHL the way Mrs. S was able to with me.

A Crossover of Animated Proportions

September 1, 2011 TechyDad Cartoons, Internet, NHL, Television

I’ve been thinking a lot about fairies. You see, NHL recently discovered The Fairly Oddparents thanks to Netflix/Roku. And by “discovered”, I mean I showed it to him knowing full well that he’d be hooked. Of course, being the TV geek-in-training that he is, he immediately went on a quest to watch all of the episodes there are.

If you aren’t up to date on your NickToons, here’s the quick run-down. Timmy’s a little boy who has it rough. He’s unpopular in school, has parents who frequently ignore him and has a babysitter who terrorizes him for fun. Luckily for him, he’s assigned two fairy godparents – Cosmo and Wanda. Their job is to help him be happy until he’s good enough to not need fairies anymore. At that time, he loses his fairies, loses his memories of them, and they get re-assigned to a new miserable kid. They grant him wishes with comical results while trying to keep their existence a secret.

At one point, while listening in on one of the episodes, I wondered about the guy who did the voice for Timmy’s dad. It’s a pretty distinctive voice and I wondered if I had heard it anywhere else. Being a TV Geek, I loaded up IMDB and browsed on over to the Fairly Oddparents page. I didn’t see Timmy’s dad right away, so I looked up a few of the other voices. That’s when I noticed two things.

First of all, Timmy’s parents and godparents are voiced by the same people. Cosmo’s voice and Timmy’s Dad’s voice are by Daran Norris while Wanda and Timmy’s Mom come from Susanne Blakeslee. This adds quite an interesting wrinkle to the show since his fairy godparents often act as replacement parents (for better or worse) to Timmy.

Secondly, I began to notice a pattern with some of the voice actors. A few of them also voice characters in another series that the boys like: Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

This series, aimed at a younger set, is about the adventures of a yellow being (exactly what he and his friends are isn’t clear) named Wubbzy who likes having fun, his friends Walden (who likes reading/studying/science), Widget (who likes building things), Daizy (who likes gardening). All of these characters, except for Widget, share voice actors with Fairly Oddparents characters.

Wubbzy might be fun loving on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, but on The Fairly OddParents, Grey DeLisle plays Vicky, the babysitter from hell. While Wubbzy would love to play a game of kickety-kick ball, Vicky would love to play a game of kickety-kick Timmy.

Timmy Turner is your average kid with a miserable life (save for his fairy godparents). He likes the usual boy activities such as watching TV, playing video games and reading comic books. His voice actor, Tara Strong, also voices Daizy, the aforementioned gardening lover who also likes rainbows and lollipops. They do seem to share an affinity for pink, however.

Carlos Alazraqui voices Denzel Crocker, Timmy’s fairy-obsessed teacher. Mr. Crocker, when a boy, had Timmy’s fairy godparents. Since growing up, however, he’s become a man obsessed with 1) proving that fairies really exist and 2) using their magic to take over the world. He’s deduced that Timmy has fairy godparents and constantly tries to lure them into traps. He’s actually been successful a few times, but Timmy always prevails and Mr. Crocker’s memory is wiped, though the crazy remains. Meanwhile, over on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Carlos plays Walden, a well-adjusted figure interested in books, science and art. No sign of craziness at all.

I debated whether or not to share this information with NHL. On one hand, he would surely appreciate the linkages between the two shows. On the other hand, would it spoil the magic of the shows to know that people give voice to these characters? I decided to tell him. As expected, he loved the linkups and was curious what others there might be. Given his recent excitement over seeing the “last” Fairly Oddparents episode (the last one available on Netflix, at least), it hasn’t reduced his enjoyment of the show at all.

Have you spotted any interesting cartoon crossovers?

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The Intersection of Build-A-Bear, Star Wars and Harry Potter

August 30, 2011 TechyDad Harry Potter, NHL, Play, Star Wars, Toys

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, NHL is heavily interested in Harry Potter at the moment. The downside to this is that he loves pretending to be the characters that he’s interested in. When he plays superheroes, he puts on his Iron Man mask and “flies” around the house. When he plays Jake and the Neverland Pirates, he uses “gold doubloons” from JSL’s birthday party.

When he casts spells as Harry Potter, though, he has no wand. Sure, he can (and does) just use his finger as a pretend wand or hold an imaginary wand, but there’s something special about pretend play where you utilize a real object.

We could buy him a wand, but that’d just be a recipe for disaster. A couple of years ago, the boys got a toy drum set and began using the drum sticks as magic wands. They wound up “casting spells” by physically striking each other with them. Needless to say, the wands/drum sticks were confiscated for the safety of all. Though the boys are a few years older now, I somehow doubt that they could keep the spell-casting from turning physical for too long.

As I was tucking NHL into bed the other night, I hit upon the solution. You see, NHL has a dinosaur, Trike, that he made from Build-A-Bear.

One year, using a birthday coupon, he purchased a Jedi outfit for Trike.

See this?

That’s Trike’s lightsaber. See how it compares to a movie lightsaber? (Ok, a toy lightsaber from ThinkGeek.)

Well, now look how it compares to a Harry Potter wand.

It’s straight, has a handle and a pointed end. It’d make a perfect wand. As a bonus, it’s soft so you could hit someone with the wand/lightsaber without hurting them. (Not that I’m encouraging this, mind you.)

No need to worry about NHL casting Stupefy on me, though. I’ve already informed him that moms and dads are naturally immune to their kids’ spells. NHL has attempted to cast a “reverse immunity spell” of his own making. Of course, since I’m immune to any spell he casts, I’m immune to a spell which attempts to remove my immunity. Still, I’ll play along with Expelliarmus from time to time.

What toys have your kids used for purposes other than what the manufacturers intended?

Don’t forget to enter my Hot Wheels Nitro Speeders giveaway!

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