October 10-11
Dina had her monthly scrapbooking workshop at our house, so I got to take care of the boys Friday night and Saturday. I took them to the zoo on Saturday, which was lots of fun (but a bit cold). On Sunday we all went to the mall and I bought a bunch of clothes, since I haven't bought clothes in a very long time, and I needed to restock for my work trip to London (I'll be there Oct. 25 - 28). Can't wait!
October 16-17-18
Dina had a scrapbooking retreat she was helping organize, so my mom came up and helped me watch the boys all weekend. There was also some drama with my wife's side of the family, so sadly she wasn't able to relax as much as she would have liked.
Oh, and I recorded a song over the weekend, which a friend from the Jabberboard turned into this, for the Jabberboard Coversong Challenge (Round 20). I played mandolin and sang, while he added all the other effects and remixed.
That brings us to now.
I'm wrapping things up this week at work and home to get ready for my trip to London, where I'm presenting at an info session about the product I work on. I'm really excited to go, though it'll be tough for Dina at home alone that many days with all the boys.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wow...what a draining weekend that was
I meant to write this entry earlier this week, but it's basically taken me this long to recover from the weekend. On Friday Caden and Rohan were sick; they had colds that had moved into their lungs and had deep coughs. Dina asked me to stay home from work to help bring them into the doctor, so I did.
We brought them to our clinic and the doctor had us nebulize them twice since they had short, wheezy breath. Rohan responded well, but Caden didn't, so the doctor checked Caden's blood oxygen level. The reading was so low he thought his machine was broken. We were informed that Caden would be taking an ambulance to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Dina rode with him while I took Griffin and Rohan back home. I dropped off Griffin with Uncle Guy, gathered some things to bring to the hospital, and drove over there with Rohan. Caden was in the emergency room getting oxygen, getting nebulized, and getting steroid treatments. They gave him an IV shortly after I got there, but they had to try five times before they got a good one...the poor kid was frantically unhappy.
Eventually he got moved out of the E.R. to the regular area for kids with respiratory problems. They determined that his lungs were having an asthmatic reaction to the RSV virus. They were able to keep his oxygen level up if they gave him oxygen with a nose tube, so they wanted to keep him until they healed his lungs up enough to keep his oxygen up himself.
For the next couple days Dina stayed with Caden while I drove back and forth from home to the hospital, bringing things Dina needed and shuffling Griffin between other family members. Caden steadily got better, but progress was slow. On Sunday we were making preparations for dealing with having him in the hospital for part of the work week, when the doctor surprised us with the news that he was comfortable with Caden going home that night! We were a little unsure and surprised, since the staff during the day told us to prepare for him to be there another day or two, but were were also happy and relieved to be going home.
We still had to give both boys steroids twice a day for a few days (which they hated because of the terrible taste), and we have to use the nebulizer on both of them every four hours through today, then continuing as needed.
Those events were pretty draining, so we've been keeping it pretty low-key this week at home. Hopefully this weekend will hold much less excitement.
I'm very thankful to everyone that helped us out over the weekend, and to everyone who showed their concern and offered to help us out. We really appreciate it!
Also, lots of thanks to Children's Hospital, which is an amazing place, filled with amazing doctors and staff. All of whom we hope never to have to see again. :-)
We brought them to our clinic and the doctor had us nebulize them twice since they had short, wheezy breath. Rohan responded well, but Caden didn't, so the doctor checked Caden's blood oxygen level. The reading was so low he thought his machine was broken. We were informed that Caden would be taking an ambulance to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Dina rode with him while I took Griffin and Rohan back home. I dropped off Griffin with Uncle Guy, gathered some things to bring to the hospital, and drove over there with Rohan. Caden was in the emergency room getting oxygen, getting nebulized, and getting steroid treatments. They gave him an IV shortly after I got there, but they had to try five times before they got a good one...the poor kid was frantically unhappy.
Eventually he got moved out of the E.R. to the regular area for kids with respiratory problems. They determined that his lungs were having an asthmatic reaction to the RSV virus. They were able to keep his oxygen level up if they gave him oxygen with a nose tube, so they wanted to keep him until they healed his lungs up enough to keep his oxygen up himself.
For the next couple days Dina stayed with Caden while I drove back and forth from home to the hospital, bringing things Dina needed and shuffling Griffin between other family members. Caden steadily got better, but progress was slow. On Sunday we were making preparations for dealing with having him in the hospital for part of the work week, when the doctor surprised us with the news that he was comfortable with Caden going home that night! We were a little unsure and surprised, since the staff during the day told us to prepare for him to be there another day or two, but were were also happy and relieved to be going home.
We still had to give both boys steroids twice a day for a few days (which they hated because of the terrible taste), and we have to use the nebulizer on both of them every four hours through today, then continuing as needed.
Those events were pretty draining, so we've been keeping it pretty low-key this week at home. Hopefully this weekend will hold much less excitement.
I'm very thankful to everyone that helped us out over the weekend, and to everyone who showed their concern and offered to help us out. We really appreciate it!
Also, lots of thanks to Children's Hospital, which is an amazing place, filled with amazing doctors and staff. All of whom we hope never to have to see again. :-)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Oops - missed a weekend
Quick version of two weekends ago: Dina put on a Creative Memories workshop at our place on Friday night and Saturday, so I had the boys. Lots of playing at the park, lots of playing at home. Lots of fun. On Sunday we tried to go to the Renaissance Festival. Actually, we did go, but it got up to about 90 degrees, and the twins were fighting off colds, so we were beaten down and went home defeated at about 3:00 (we usually stay from near-open to close). We didn't get to see our friends the Fandazzi Fire Circus, which disappointed us, as we heard their show is awesome this year.
This last weekend was a lot of fun. Dina and I signed up for a winery bus trip through WineStyles in Champlin (great place - I gave Dina a year's membership in their wine club for Christmas last year). I was a little apprehensive about going, because I didn't know anyone besides my wife and I'm not generally very social. It turned out to be a ton of fun, though. Dina knows a couple people in the wine club and we got to sit next to them on the big coach bus. The plan was to drive to the Baker Apple Orchard (owned by one of the wine club members) near Centuria, Wisconsin, then drive on to the Chateau St. Croix Winery & Vineyard in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Oh, and on the bus, the wine flowed like...well, like wine, I guess. WE DRANK LOTS OF WINE. The most I've had in one day, I'm sure of it. Luckily it was spread through the whole day, so I wasn't trashed, just a bit dehydrated at the end of the day. The mix of people on the bus was interesting. There were more women than men by far, and there were some younger people there, including a bachelorette party, but most people were definitely older than my wife and I. Bus full o' drunken cougars, I tell ya. But it was still pretty fun. I'd do it again. :-)
Here are some pictures from the winery:
After we got home from our crazy wino tour, we arrived to our house already full of Dina's brother and sister and their families. We were celebrating Dina's sister's birthday, and her son's birthday too. So that was fun.
On Sunday Dina spent a lot of time getting stuff organized that we're going to sell at the Mothers of Multiples' fall sale, while I played in the backyard with the boys. I also watched the Vikings game that afternoon and Dina got her hair cut and colored. That night I bottled my Deep Dark Wheat beer. I'm excited to try it, and a little nervous, because I really don't know what it's going to taste like, or even if I'm going to like it. We'll see. I might soon be looking for a whole bunch of people who like Dunkelweizen! :-)
This last weekend was a lot of fun. Dina and I signed up for a winery bus trip through WineStyles in Champlin (great place - I gave Dina a year's membership in their wine club for Christmas last year). I was a little apprehensive about going, because I didn't know anyone besides my wife and I'm not generally very social. It turned out to be a ton of fun, though. Dina knows a couple people in the wine club and we got to sit next to them on the big coach bus. The plan was to drive to the Baker Apple Orchard (owned by one of the wine club members) near Centuria, Wisconsin, then drive on to the Chateau St. Croix Winery & Vineyard in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Oh, and on the bus, the wine flowed like...well, like wine, I guess. WE DRANK LOTS OF WINE. The most I've had in one day, I'm sure of it. Luckily it was spread through the whole day, so I wasn't trashed, just a bit dehydrated at the end of the day. The mix of people on the bus was interesting. There were more women than men by far, and there were some younger people there, including a bachelorette party, but most people were definitely older than my wife and I. Bus full o' drunken cougars, I tell ya. But it was still pretty fun. I'd do it again. :-)
Here are some pictures from the winery:
After we got home from our crazy wino tour, we arrived to our house already full of Dina's brother and sister and their families. We were celebrating Dina's sister's birthday, and her son's birthday too. So that was fun.
On Sunday Dina spent a lot of time getting stuff organized that we're going to sell at the Mothers of Multiples' fall sale, while I played in the backyard with the boys. I also watched the Vikings game that afternoon and Dina got her hair cut and colored. That night I bottled my Deep Dark Wheat beer. I'm excited to try it, and a little nervous, because I really don't know what it's going to taste like, or even if I'm going to like it. We'll see. I might soon be looking for a whole bunch of people who like Dunkelweizen! :-)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Four-day weekends rule
I had Friday off to go to the State Fair with my family and my mom. That was awesome! Mom came up Thursday night, so we got a good early start to the fair, which is incredibly important with three kids and a double-stroller. The Fair was the usual mix of awful/yummy food, games and rides for the kids, all kinds of animals, and a complete overload of things to see. I only have one good photo from my phone...I'll post more if I get them from my wife's computer. This is Dina and the kids watching a video (or not) at the Eco Experience:
Here's a rundown of the fair food I tried (I didn't eat all of all of these, but at least tasted them all):
- Spam breakfast sandwich
- Spam curds
- mini donuts
- pancake batter covered sausages, fried on a stick
- cheese curds
- fresh lemonade
- cheese on a stick
- apple-flavored honey taffy
- wine ice cream
- chocolate-covered bacon
- Summit Horizon Red Ale
- peach-glazed pork cheeks
- braised pork sandwich
- corn bread
- Sweet Martha's cookies
Mmmmmmm. We were at the Fair from about 8:30 in the morning until about 8:15 that night. That's a lot of Fair, and we were completely wiped out at the end of the day, so we went home, cleaned up and went to bed.
On Saturday morning we said bye to my Mom as she was heading to her lake cabin for the weekend. Dina and I had a wedding to go to that afternoon, so we spent the day getting the house cleaned up and getting ready to go. Dina's awesome brother and his awesome wife babysat the kids, so we had a free night out - woo hoo!
The wedding was a lot of fun; it was at a beautiful downtown church, and was not your typical wedding, in that the readings were from The Velveteen Rabbit and an Ogden Nash poem, and the wedding couple had everyone who attended the wedding bunch together in front for a big group photo, which I thought was very cool.
The wedding was at 4 p.m., and lasted about 20 minutes - perfect! The reception wasn't until 7 p.m. at a wine bar out in the suburbs, though, so we went to Don and Bhavna's house (which was on the way) and drank some yummy beer and wine to pass the time. We got to meet their cute little dog Skippy, who pretends to be an ankle-biter, but really is not. The reception was at a little wine bar/bistro called The School II. Odd name, but a cool place. The party was great, with lots of talking with friends, good wine and beer, good food, and some really, really bad dancing. We had a good time and got home a little after midnight.
Sunday was basically a recovery day from the night before. We did various stuff around the house that needed doing. Slowly. We also noticed that the younger two of our boys were getting head colds. That night was a rough night for sleeping since those two were coughing so much.
On Monday we pretty much just ran errands and cleaned up the house. We bought a new kids' mattress, so now all 3 boys have regular mattresses (until then Caden had been sleeping on a crib mattress). We also rearranged their room so their mattresses are all along the same wall. It's pretty cute to see all three of them sleeping in a row like that. Someday they'll need more space, but for now it's cool. :-) Another errand I ran that day was picking up the windows and doors I had re-screened at the local hardware shop. Re-screening windows is one of the many house chores that falls into the category of "I could do this myself but the anger isn't worth it, so I'll pay someone else to do it." I'll get them all put back in tonight.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I'm looking forward to the week!
Here's a rundown of the fair food I tried (I didn't eat all of all of these, but at least tasted them all):
- Spam breakfast sandwich
- Spam curds
- mini donuts
- pancake batter covered sausages, fried on a stick
- cheese curds
- fresh lemonade
- cheese on a stick
- apple-flavored honey taffy
- wine ice cream
- chocolate-covered bacon
- Summit Horizon Red Ale
- peach-glazed pork cheeks
- braised pork sandwich
- corn bread
- Sweet Martha's cookies
Mmmmmmm. We were at the Fair from about 8:30 in the morning until about 8:15 that night. That's a lot of Fair, and we were completely wiped out at the end of the day, so we went home, cleaned up and went to bed.
On Saturday morning we said bye to my Mom as she was heading to her lake cabin for the weekend. Dina and I had a wedding to go to that afternoon, so we spent the day getting the house cleaned up and getting ready to go. Dina's awesome brother and his awesome wife babysat the kids, so we had a free night out - woo hoo!
The wedding was a lot of fun; it was at a beautiful downtown church, and was not your typical wedding, in that the readings were from The Velveteen Rabbit and an Ogden Nash poem, and the wedding couple had everyone who attended the wedding bunch together in front for a big group photo, which I thought was very cool.
The wedding was at 4 p.m., and lasted about 20 minutes - perfect! The reception wasn't until 7 p.m. at a wine bar out in the suburbs, though, so we went to Don and Bhavna's house (which was on the way) and drank some yummy beer and wine to pass the time. We got to meet their cute little dog Skippy, who pretends to be an ankle-biter, but really is not. The reception was at a little wine bar/bistro called The School II. Odd name, but a cool place. The party was great, with lots of talking with friends, good wine and beer, good food, and some really, really bad dancing. We had a good time and got home a little after midnight.
Sunday was basically a recovery day from the night before. We did various stuff around the house that needed doing. Slowly. We also noticed that the younger two of our boys were getting head colds. That night was a rough night for sleeping since those two were coughing so much.
On Monday we pretty much just ran errands and cleaned up the house. We bought a new kids' mattress, so now all 3 boys have regular mattresses (until then Caden had been sleeping on a crib mattress). We also rearranged their room so their mattresses are all along the same wall. It's pretty cute to see all three of them sleeping in a row like that. Someday they'll need more space, but for now it's cool. :-) Another errand I ran that day was picking up the windows and doors I had re-screened at the local hardware shop. Re-screening windows is one of the many house chores that falls into the category of "I could do this myself but the anger isn't worth it, so I'll pay someone else to do it." I'll get them all put back in tonight.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I'm looking forward to the week!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Weekend with the family
This was a fairly uneventful weekend, but I got to spend a lot of time with our boys, and we had some fun moments at home.
On Saturday Dina had a self-defense course with her sister, and they went to the salon and out to dinner that night. So I got to hang out with the boys all day. We pretty much just did a bunch of stuff around the house. Caden and Rohan had fun watching Griffin play with his tee-ball set:
Griffin also had lots of fun catching grasshoppers. Our yard is crawling with them this time of year, so there are plenty for him to chase. He did manage to catch a couple of big ones like this (I love the fact that he's catching grasshoppers while wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt):
On Sunday Dina had a brunch with some friends and then had to run some errands, so I had the boys again. It's nice to watch them for Dina so she can get a break on the weekends. They can be pretty overwhelming, and she does a good job taking care of them during the week. Anyway, Sunday was much like Saturday, except I did a fair bit more cleaning and such around the house. I made some Salsa Verde with tomatillos and other veggies from our most recent CSA share box. Mmmmm....
After Dina got back that afternoon her mom came over for a visit. I went out and mowed the lawn and did some other yardwork. My grass was pretty long; my back's been sore for a while, so I've been avoiding jarring it while mowing. My back is still sore, but I had to mow or it would have become a much more difficult job. I'm paying for it a little bit today.
After Dina and I had dinner and got all the boys to bed, we actually had some time to hang out together, which was awesome. We shared a bottle of Ommegang Chocolate Stout and munched on chips and my Salsa Verde while watching Law & Order. It was a good end to a good weekend!
On Saturday Dina had a self-defense course with her sister, and they went to the salon and out to dinner that night. So I got to hang out with the boys all day. We pretty much just did a bunch of stuff around the house. Caden and Rohan had fun watching Griffin play with his tee-ball set:
Griffin also had lots of fun catching grasshoppers. Our yard is crawling with them this time of year, so there are plenty for him to chase. He did manage to catch a couple of big ones like this (I love the fact that he's catching grasshoppers while wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt):
On Sunday Dina had a brunch with some friends and then had to run some errands, so I had the boys again. It's nice to watch them for Dina so she can get a break on the weekends. They can be pretty overwhelming, and she does a good job taking care of them during the week. Anyway, Sunday was much like Saturday, except I did a fair bit more cleaning and such around the house. I made some Salsa Verde with tomatillos and other veggies from our most recent CSA share box. Mmmmm....
After Dina got back that afternoon her mom came over for a visit. I went out and mowed the lawn and did some other yardwork. My grass was pretty long; my back's been sore for a while, so I've been avoiding jarring it while mowing. My back is still sore, but I had to mow or it would have become a much more difficult job. I'm paying for it a little bit today.
After Dina and I had dinner and got all the boys to bed, we actually had some time to hang out together, which was awesome. We shared a bottle of Ommegang Chocolate Stout and munched on chips and my Salsa Verde while watching Law & Order. It was a good end to a good weekend!
Beer review: Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout
Last night Dina and I cracked open a bottle of Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout:
Dina bought this as a gift about a month ago, but until last night we hadn't had a good time to try it out.
This beer is a share-me. I can't imagine someone drinking the whole bottle on their own...it's just too rich. It's a very dark, nearly opaque, brown color with a fairly thick light tan head. The beer is a Belgian style, with some sweetness, lots of malt, fairly mild hops, noticeable alcohol, distinctive Belgian yeast flavor, and all kinds of complexity in the taste. It tasted slightly different with every sip...as the beer warmed, different flavors came to the front, all of them dark and rich. There wasn't as much overwhelming chocolate flavor as I expected given the name, but you could definitely taste the chocolate notes throughout.
I'd give this beer a 4 out of 5 stars, with the caveat that I could only handle about half a bottle every two months or so. Great beer...but meant for special occasions.
Dina bought this as a gift about a month ago, but until last night we hadn't had a good time to try it out.
This beer is a share-me. I can't imagine someone drinking the whole bottle on their own...it's just too rich. It's a very dark, nearly opaque, brown color with a fairly thick light tan head. The beer is a Belgian style, with some sweetness, lots of malt, fairly mild hops, noticeable alcohol, distinctive Belgian yeast flavor, and all kinds of complexity in the taste. It tasted slightly different with every sip...as the beer warmed, different flavors came to the front, all of them dark and rich. There wasn't as much overwhelming chocolate flavor as I expected given the name, but you could definitely taste the chocolate notes throughout.
I'd give this beer a 4 out of 5 stars, with the caveat that I could only handle about half a bottle every two months or so. Great beer...but meant for special occasions.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Jab-Bar-Gathering
Ouch...I think I sprained something pun-related writing that. (For those who weren't there, this past weekend was the Jabbergathering 2.0, an in-person party for the members of an online message board. The party was dual-purpose this year, because one of the attendees recently took the bar exam after some grueling years of law school and even-more-grueling weeks of study.)
Anyway, I'll back up a bit. I've got three kids, and my keep-cool skills were put to the test on Saturday. Long story short, my wife was out running errands, and my four year old decided to throw a toy at our TV. Crack - broken LCD screen - basically totalling the TV. I sent him to his room so I wouldn't yell at him, then called my wife. I think my exact words were, "What can I DO to Griffin?" I eventually calmed down, but Griffin knew I was pretty mad. He's been banned from TV of any sort for a while.
I kept myself somewhat calm by reminding myself (many times) that 1) nobody got hurt, and TVs, though costly, can be replaced; and 2) I was going to the Jabbergathering that evening.
Anyway, after all that, I was READY to get out of the house and go to a party. I got to the Jabbergathering at about 7:30, and grabbed a cup to make my own personal dent in the keg. The gathering contained all the typical trappings of parties amongst my friends:
Drinking:
Poker:
Watching Star Trek (sorta):
Facial hair:
And, of course, acoustic stringed instrument jams with guitars, bass, banjo, ukelele, mandolin, and mountain dulcimer:
That jam was a ton of fun. Can't wait to play some more music!
One bit of wackiness happened when an enormous tree across the street decided to drop a huge branch right onto the neighbor's house and car. I was with a group of people walking back to the house from The Four Firkins (a great beer store) when this happened. We heard it from about a block away and had no idea what the noise was. This was the scene the next morning:
As you can see, the gods of mayhem rode wild that night. Luckily they didn't take interest in me, probably because I drank a LOT less than I did at the last Jabbergathering (after which I was roundly ridiculed by my loving wife :-) ). I was up at 7:30 the next morning and drove home to spend a fun day with the wife and kids at the park. It was a great weekend!
Anyway, I'll back up a bit. I've got three kids, and my keep-cool skills were put to the test on Saturday. Long story short, my wife was out running errands, and my four year old decided to throw a toy at our TV. Crack - broken LCD screen - basically totalling the TV. I sent him to his room so I wouldn't yell at him, then called my wife. I think my exact words were, "What can I DO to Griffin?" I eventually calmed down, but Griffin knew I was pretty mad. He's been banned from TV of any sort for a while.
I kept myself somewhat calm by reminding myself (many times) that 1) nobody got hurt, and TVs, though costly, can be replaced; and 2) I was going to the Jabbergathering that evening.
Anyway, after all that, I was READY to get out of the house and go to a party. I got to the Jabbergathering at about 7:30, and grabbed a cup to make my own personal dent in the keg. The gathering contained all the typical trappings of parties amongst my friends:
Drinking:
Poker:
Watching Star Trek (sorta):
Facial hair:
And, of course, acoustic stringed instrument jams with guitars, bass, banjo, ukelele, mandolin, and mountain dulcimer:
That jam was a ton of fun. Can't wait to play some more music!
One bit of wackiness happened when an enormous tree across the street decided to drop a huge branch right onto the neighbor's house and car. I was with a group of people walking back to the house from The Four Firkins (a great beer store) when this happened. We heard it from about a block away and had no idea what the noise was. This was the scene the next morning:
As you can see, the gods of mayhem rode wild that night. Luckily they didn't take interest in me, probably because I drank a LOT less than I did at the last Jabbergathering (after which I was roundly ridiculed by my loving wife :-) ). I was up at 7:30 the next morning and drove home to spend a fun day with the wife and kids at the park. It was a great weekend!
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