Category: NHL

Gangs of Roving Cows

Humor, NHL

While no the way to Buffalo (more on that later), NHL and JSL were excited to see cows out of their window as we passed a few farms.  NHL pointed and excitedly exclaimed: "Look! A gang of cows!"  B and I chuckled as we started discussing the existence of the Udders and Moos.  Do cow gangs roam the countryside terrorizing farms?  I knew farm life was difficult, but never knew how bad it was.

Of course, then I realized an even more horrible truth.  You might remember my Dear Kid Saturday post a month ago about how NHL declared he was a "Selective Vegetarian."  He was only going to eat animals that he didn’t like and he liked cows.  Is he, by refusing to eat potential cow gang members, supporting farm animal hoodlums?

Please, NHL, won’t you eat this burger so a farmer won’t have to live his life in fear of drive-by milk attacks?

The Adventures of Disco Man and Fire Guy

Geeky Pursuits, Internet, JSL, NHL, Photos, Superheroes

JSL and NHL love superheroes. From Batman to Iron Man to Spiderman to Ben 10, they love watching and acting out the exploits of various superheroes. So they both loved it when I introduced them to Hero Machine. They each had a blast creating their own superhero identity.

First, JSL made himself into Fire Guy:

FireGuy.jpg

He was quite adament that Fire Guy be blue and have a cape. Those were non-negotiable. I’m guessing his powers include the ability to throw fire around.

Next up was NHL. He came up with Disco Man:

DiscoMan.jpg

When I asked why "Disco", NHL replied that it was because of his eyes. They looked like disco balls. (I pointed out a disco ball one time when we bowled a month ago. Good recollection!) He also declared that Disco Man had the power "to die sharks." I’m not sure how useful that power is in the day-to-day life of a super hero. If there’s an evil Shark Dude villian out there, he’d better steer clear of Disco Man.

Of course, I couldn’t let them have all the fun. I designed a superhero for myself and B. Now, we’re a superhero family!

Superhero Family.jpg

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe some evil needs to be vanquished! TechyDad, away!

What-er Great Escape

NHL, Photos, Six Flags

On the day before Father’s Day, we went to the Great Escape. It was a hot day and, though we weren’t going to the water park section, I was looking forward to getting a little drenched at the Raging River ride. While B took JSL to Wiggles World, NHL and I got on line for the Raging River ride. (She took the camera as I obviously couldn’t bring it on this ride… thus the lack of photos.) The line was long, but moved pretty fast. During the ride, I spoke with a woman in front of me (who was there with her three sons) and we eventually got on the ride together.

Now, the basic layout of this ride is a whitewater rapids with a few small waterfalls. There are also water sprayers that can soak you at various intervals. A recent change seems to be that these sprayers are now operated by people who deposit quarters for the honor of soaking riders. Quite the ingenious money making scheme there!

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My Dancing Fools

JSL, NHL, Videos

Over the weekend, we went to a family wedding. First of all, my kids do not have good track records with weddings. The last one we were at, B’s brother’s wedding, saw NHL scream out “I GOTTA GO POTTY” twice. Not because he had to go, mind you, but because he was bored and wanted out of the room. I wasn’t too shocked when, as the wedding party entered to ceremonial music, JSL started getting fussy and announced loudly “ME HUNGRY!!!” We had already gotten him some food (thanks to the catering staff), but he wasn’t satisfied and got more and more vocal.

I picked him up and carried him outside as quickly as I could, but he got even more vocal as we left. I was able to calm him down outside and entertain him with watching some ants and rocking in some rocking chairs. Eventually, I heard different music that indicated to me that the ceremony had ended and soon afterwards, B came out to see how we were doing.

A short while later, my boys were happily eating – crackers and cheese. The appetizers were being served and they were loving it. At one point, NHL informed me that he was almost completely full but had just enough room for cake. I told him that the main course still had to be served and he gave me a “You’re kidding right” look. Of course, they both almost completely shunned the main course. Not because the food was bad, mind you. It was quite good. They shunned it because it was “adult food” and not chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese or pizza. *sigh* I really need to work on that.

After the cake was sliced, the music started blaring and people starting dancing. Here is where my boys really enjoyed the wedding. NHL and JSL proved that they were both dancing fools, even if video was being taken of them. Please excuse some of the dark videos, the lighting wasn’t the greatest. The room was darkened so rotating colored lights could be seen. If anyone knows of any free or low cost video editing tools to lighten dark videos, I’d love to hear of it.

Do The Twist
[flv]2010/06/P1270974.flv|424|240[/flv]

Dance Around (very dark, you can see JSL running in circles but can’t see NHL attempting to break dance)
[flv]2010/06/P1270982.flv|240|424[/flv]

Music (And Trying To Snap Fingers) Trumps Cake… Who Knew?
[flv]2010/06/P1280023.flv|424|240[/flv]

Shout!
[flv]2010/06/P1280035.flv|424|240[/flv]

By the end of the night, both kids were exhausted and passed out quite easily. We’re going to have to have dance-offs for them more often!

Dear Kid Saturday: Selective Vegetarianism

Cooking, NHL, Parenting

Dear NHL,

Tonight, I made burgers using peanut butter as the special ingredient. (More on that in a later post.) I figured that a burger would go over great and you were excited about it. I don’t cook meat that often due to the high prices of Kosher meat, so a meat meal at home is a rare treat. (Our last one was probably over a month ago.) When the burger was served to you, you suddenly changed your mind. You didn’t want to eat it and screamed and shouted. Amoung your tear-filled rationalizations as to why you couldn’t eat the burger was that you liked milk. This confused us so we asked what that had to do with anything. You told us that cows give milk and you love milk so you couldn’t eat something that came from a cow that was killed. You insisted that you didn’t eat meat.

Now, if this were due to some epiphany regarding cruelty to animals or something, I might have ended the conversation there and respected your decision. However, your mother and I sensed that your anti-beef stance was less about animal rights and more about simply not wanting what was on your plate. We asked you about chicken nuggets. After all, you love eating those and they’re made of meat. Your answer was that you didn’t like chickens and so were fine eating them.

Your mother and I looked at each other and though we didn’t burst out laughing right there, we were laughing on the inside. We’re quite sure that you’ve invented a new form of vegetarianism. I’ve dubbed it Selective Vegetarianism. You eat or don’t eat meat depending on how much you like the kind of animal it comes from. Fond of cows? No beef for you. Can’t stand chickens or turkeys? Poultry is fine on the plate.

In the end, you very reluctantly ate a few more bites of burger before having some yogurt and watermelon. We also think we know why you rejected the burger and it had nothing to do with the beef. The recipe called for onion and the texture of that probably threw you. Next time, I’ll make the burgers without onion… and maybe I’ll use turkey so we don’t trigger any selective vegetarianism again!

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