October 20, 2005
Today is MAW's birthday
Today is MAW's birthday. As you can see from the picture below, she's just turned twenty-nine.
Again.
Be sure to wish her a happy birthday.
Family /Photography by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
Taco Soup
The smell of cooking is wafting up the stairs to my office. MAW is making the first Taco Soup of the season. This is a dish we eat a lot of in the cooler seasons, but she's been avoiding it for a few years to keep the onions out of her various "mommy" systems.
Family Reunion Taco Soup
I Ib. ground beef
1 onion chopped
I green bell pepper chopped
1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes undrained
1-2 packages Taco Seasonings mix (Old El Paso) (1.25 oz)
1 package of ranch dressing mix (1 oz.)
1/2 cup picante sauce
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
2 15-17 oz cans of whole kernel corn undrained
1 15-16 oz cans of pinto beans
2 cups of water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Tortilla chips and grated cheese
Brown the beef, onion and bell pepper in a large pot and drain. Add chopped tomatoes to the pot with their juice. Add the taco seasonings, the dressing mix and the picante sauce, tomato paste, corn, beans, water, salt and pepper. Simmer I hour. Serve in bowls and sprinkle each serving with tortilla chips and cheese. Alternate: serve over rice.
Makes a large pot, about 12 servings.
If she's true to form, she'll be making a double batch and freezing the rest for quick meals on football days.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
September 22, 2005
Hurricane travelling
Some of you already knew this, but I didn't mention it here. I've been out west all week visiting the California offices. If you've been trying to reach me by my traditional email, I haven't been able to access it.
Originally, I was planning on flying back Saturday afternoon/evening, but from the news, I might be coming into an Austin experiening hurricane category 1 winds of 70 mph. Uh... no thanks. So, I'm betting on a plane being faster than a hurricane and flying in Friday afternoon around 3:30.
I have a lot of family in friends in the Houston area. If you're being told to evacuate, then get the hell out of there. If you're not, well, at least stock up on supplies. I know my place is already signed up to take in a certain number of relatives, but I don't know how many or when they're getting there. If you're heading up and needing a place to stay, we might have room, but I don't know. MAW is coordinating all of that. You can reach her via juliarandolph over at LJ.
And speaking of Rita, MAW has been getting the itch for a margarita with every headline, so as soon as I get home, I'm going get my wife all lickered up... er... I mean liquored up... no, wait... I'm just going to stop now.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 23, 2005
Funeral is over
We buried my father this morning. I'd like to go on about how nice the service was and how great it was that so many friends and family traveled great distances just to be there for us or how nice the luncheon was afterwards, but... I'm just too tired right now. Partly it's the emotional drain, and part of it is just standing up more than usual, but a lot of it is doing some of that in 100+ heat.
Tomorrow it'll be back to work and routine.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 16, 2005
My watch
Those of you who've been following the strange relationship between me and my various watches should know that about fifteen minutes after posting last night's entry, my watch stopped.
You know, I'm not a big believer in the supernatural meanings of common day occurances, and I'm not attributing one to this. However, the fact that my watches stop working at times that I should really be pausing for relaxation or reflection is, well, interesting.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
My father died today
After battling cancer for over two years, my father died this afternoon. In his weakened state, the pneumonia returned, and he died peacefully in his sleep.
Most of you reading this won't have really known my father, so I thought I'd pass on a few brushstrokes of his character.
He was an electrical engineer. It was not merely his job. It was his hobby. It was his passion. Mom never feared he would stray, because she new engineering was Dad's mistriss. Specifically, he worked on microwave communications. That's not one frozen pizza talking to another. It's the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and it's a very weird part of the spectrum. I've heard other skilled EE's talk about it and just shudder. "Black magic", they called it, but Dad thrived on it.
He worked on everything from top secret defense programs to long distance telephone networks, from cell and sattelite phones to the communications systems for the Apollo moon missions. His work helped save pilots' lives and made yours and mine more convenient. In that, he was a patriot, always concious of helping to give America an edge, and while he often questioned the national wisdom and direction, he always felt that this was the greatest nation on Earth.
He was also the cheapest man I've ever known. The polite thing to say is "frugal", but he didn't mince words over it. He freely admitted to being cheap. "A penny saved is better than a penny earned," he would say, "because it's tax free!" And this never changed, even with financial success. On my last visit to see him, on the way back from a financial meeting that laid out how well he has prepared for my mother's future, he was advising her on just where that day's cheapest gas station was. "Hey, 2 cents a gallon adds up."
And he did meet with a fair degree of financial success. He always strived to understand the larger economic events and invested aggressively for decades. He wasn't always on target, but after his retirement, he was able to really focus on it. At that point, he started beating the S&P 500 index by about 15% each year. Very few on Wall Street can say the same. One of his most prescient predictions came about a year ago as the price of oil approached the stratospheric level of $35 a barrel. I opined that it couldn't last long at that level. He just smiled and said, "We'll see $60 before we see $20 again." For those not following such things, I point out that oil closed at $66.27 today.
But he was not a money-loving greedy bastard. He gave much to charity, and while he would sometimes refer to the less fortunate with scorn, he was always kind to the individual. While very conservative in fiscal matters, he was remarkably liberal on many social issues, such as drug legalization, abortion rights, and to some degree, even gay marraige -- very rare for someone of his generation. He was also strongly opposed to various forms of prejudice, whether on racial, ethnic, or gender lines. This was not born out of any great high minded ideals, just that it struck him as incredibly stupid and inefficient.
And he was a great father. He was always there, and he loved my mother for over forty years. He taught me about responsibility, promises, self-reliance, and all the things a man is supposed to learn from his father but often doesn't.
So I think back across my childhood, and all the memories with him. There were many long cross-country drives on wonderful camping vacations. And amongst the beauty of the American wilderness, the ruggedness of the Rockies, the Tetons, the stillness of Crater Lake. he would point it out, just there, to the left of that peak. "Hey kids, there's another microwave tower."
Dates aren't set yet, but there will be a funeral service in Phoenix followed by a burial service in Austin.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (6)
August 11, 2005
Generic Update 8.11
This is just a generic update on various happenings in my life.
My father remains with one foot in the grave, though a phone call today made it clear that the remaining foot was slipping. No one knows when it’s going to happen, but it will be soon. I’m guessing one to two weeks.
Ironically, I’m actually scheduled to go visit them in another week or so. I have a business trip out to the California office, and I planned to stop off in Phoenix both coming and going. We’ll see what happens.
Work is… well, work. There are plenty of fires to deal with, and this time, I’m actually on one that’s at least somewhat my own fault. I didn’t do anything really wrong, but every now and then a project just hits a brick wall with no way forward and no way to have really seen it was going to happen. I guess it was just my turn. We’re in the process of finding the alternate path to achieve the same overall goals, and it’s looking good.
The twins continue to do pretty well, picking up more words at a decent clip. They’re still behind, but speech delay is common in twins since they learn to communicate with each other very well without words, or perhaps, with their own words. Tommy, in particular, is doing quite well. You may recall that he was hospitalized just before Christmas for low weight, vomiting, and dehydration. He has now doubled his hospital weight and now weighs more than Catherine.
Some of you know that our eldest son, Sam, has had extreme speech delay. The jury is still out on whether or not he’s technically autistic or just “within the autism spectrum”. The neurologist has just ordered up a new battery of tests. In the meantime, we got a new nanny, and Sam is responding very well to her. He’s also started with a few more words. In the spring, all he had was “noooooo” and “NO DON’T!” along with an approximation of “dada”. (Hmmm, put in that context, I must sound like a terrible father. “No, dada, don’t!” “Well, your honor, what happened was…”) But lately, he’s started counting and even making an approximation of “E-I-E-I-O” in the Old McDonald song. The counting gets a pretty rough after “four”, but the “ten” is fairly clear and at the right place in the sequence, so I can only assume that the other mumbles are valid attempts at five through nine, just poorly enunciated. Of course, we’re very excited about this, but attempts to get him on tape have proven difficult.
Personally, I’ve continued my render work over the summer. Partly I’m enjoying, and partly it’s just taking my mind off of my dad. Recently, I also bought an airbrush setup and some really good bodypaint – Hollywood effects quality stuff, so very good, very safe, and annoyingly expensive. I’ve always liked to see bodypainting, so I’m going to see if I can do it. I’m going to practice some on my legs, but if MAW’s skin can handle it, I’ll be pining away to paint her. “Ok, I’ll take out the trash, mop the floors, dust the ceiling fans, clean the toilets, and fold the laundry. Then will you let me paint you?” If any of you are interesting in being vandalized by me, let me know. I’m just hoping to get in enough practice before Orfunner (Labor Day). If various schedules (work and funerals) let me go there, I should get the chance to embarrass myself with strangers.
I had a good time playing pool one night last week. In California, my boss and coworkers usually go out for an evening of pool, and I usually suck big-time. I don’t mean “oops, you didn’t nudge the four ball hard enough” sucking, but “wow, you managed to miss nine balls and then scratch” sucking. Since we tend to play in teams of two (more conversation around the table that way), I feel bad about it. So, after the last time, I decided I’d get in a little “off-season” practice back home. This time, elements of the game finally clicked. While I’m still light-years from trick shots or a strong break, I can now usually hit the ball I wanted, and I understand when you want the cue ball to hit hard, and when you want it to hit softly. I used to think it was all just the angle – right? Now I know better. I also ran into a trio who were looking for a fourth to round out their table, and I managed to play two or three games with them fairly respectfully. They then invited me to a “divorce party” which kept me out until about 1am. But that’s another story.
A nice thing that happened recently is that MAW and I finally finished watching the Babylon 5 series DVD’s. In the original airings, she dropped out either late in season 4 or early season 5 – probably because of how much I was obsessing over it – and never saw the end. So seven years went by with me holding my tongue on the spoilers. Seven years of listening to her make an off-hand comment about something in the B5 universe and NOT saying, “Actually, it turns out that G’Kar…” or “No, what actually happened with Londo was…” Don't even get me started about Sheridan. Instead, I would just pause, take a deep breath, and tell her, “You should really see the rest of season 5.” Now we’re done, and I can finally relax. Of course, she still has to finish reading the Psi-Corps and Centauri trilogies before I’m completely off the hook, but I think that will go fairly quickly. Oh, and yes, we are both total nerds, thankyouverymuch.
I’m still working on that webcomic idea some, but I guess I’m still fine tuning my skills with the rendering tools before I try something that will require me to be able to grind them out. So, I’d say, “see you in the funny papers”, but not quite yet.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 30, 2005
Dad in hospital again
My dad is back in the hospital. I got a call from my Mom this morning that she couldn't wake him. It turns out that the had fallen into a diabetic coma due to extremely low blood sugar (the meter was at 32). The paramedics were able to diagnose the condition and revive him. He's down at the ER now being stabilized, and I suspect they'll want to keep him overnight for observation. I think this is just a problem of his continuing weight loss. I don't have a current number, but at the rate it's been dropping, I'd bet he's fallen below 130 pounds.
This adds to a whole host of other fires at both work and home that are keeping me home this weekend. I'd planned to go up to Indiana for a friend's wedding, but with everything going on, I just can't get away. If anyone has something going on Sunday or Monday, I could probably use an excuse to get out of the house for a couple of hours.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (2)
June 29, 2005
14 Years
Fourteen years ago today, I kissed MAW in front some friends and family.
My best man turned to me and said, "Ok, now it's too late."
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 15, 2005
Buying my last Father's Day card
I bought and mailed my last Father's Day card today. Mom emailed to report that the doctor says there's nothing left to do but to make Dad comfortable until the end. They're calling in Hospice now, and it will probably be over in a month or two.
It's what I expected but still sad.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 13, 2005
My father is dying
I spent this past weekend with my parents. I took MAW and the kids with me out west to see my dad one last time. I don't really want to delve into the details here, but I don't think he'll make it through the summer. Chances are, I will not see him again.
This is just an FYI out to some friends.
Family by Dan | Permalink | Comments (3)