Pure, Unadulterated Geekdom

I used to be impressed with Bob's cool little weather station in Lewisville, TX. Now along comes Donnie with the mother of all home weather stations. The only difference between geeks and boys is the price of their toys.

I can't wait until summer, so I can watch him roast out there in the Mesa, AZ desert.

 
Happy Birthday Griffin!!

I can't believe it...Griffin is 2 years old today! I can't wait to get home, give him a huge hug, and watch him cram cake into his mouth. The past 12 months have been an incredible experience, and we're looking forward to whatever the future holds.

 
Fridays...YEAH!!

Well, I'm feeling much better today...and it's FRIDAY! W00T!

Pretty good week, all in all. It rained frogs and poodles for the past two days straight. From my vantage point high above Bartlesville, I can see that there are some seriously soggy (if not just downright flooded) areas around here. I'm looking forward to some sunshine and warmer weather tomorrow.

I just read a short interview with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in Lord of the Rings), and the following quote struck a nerve:

"I remember, as a boy, just tearing off across a field, bareback, without checking for holes or anthills, falling a - - over tea kettle, and, if the horse didn't run away and I could eventually catch it, getting back on and not thinking much about it.

"As an adult, you're a little more wary, you're a little more brittle, and you can think ahead about the consequences. So if the horse starts swerving around and it's not responding to you and you're riding bareback at full speed, it's scary; as a kid, you're just exhilarated. Until you come off the horse, you're not thinking of the danger. But that's a human thing. As a kid, you don't think much about, well, death. You're just like, 'Ooh, this is fun!' "

I watch Griffin these days, and remember how it was to live without knowing/thinking about the consequences of every action. It's such a pure and innocent time in life, and it give me great pleasure to occasionally glimpse the world through his eyes.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 
Mondays...blech!

It's a fine Monday morning here in Bartlesville. After some good rainstorms yesterday, the sky is blue and the sun is shining bright today. Unfortunately, the high winds make me feel that I'm back in Wichita Falls. Also, I'm still recovering from a stomach bug that hit me yesterday afternoon, so I'm feeling pretty rotten. I'm still better off than Amy, who was hit around 3:30am this morning. It seems to be short-lived, so we'll both be better soon. Hopefully, Griffin will miss out on the fun this time around.

We had a great weekend up until now, starting with a birthday dinner for my Mom on Friday night. It was the first time since last summer that my entire family was together. It was great to see everyone. Griffin was very happy to see Joshua and "Little Baby Karson", who are both growing up so fast. Saturday, I took Griffin over to my parents to play with Joshua again, since he woke up saying "Joshua? Nana?" all morning. It's great to see him learning how to socially interact with other children. Being an only child, he's at a slight disadvantage to kids growing up with siblings. He does go to pre-school 1 day a week, which he really enjoys. He's also starting to play with other kids when we visit the playground next to the duck pond. The other day, we ended up repeatedly sledding down a steep hill with a couple of other kids and their dad. We were using plastic dishes on the grassy hill, and I can't even imagine how fast they'd be if there was snow to reduce the friction.

Yesterday, we went over to a large local pet supply store. He loves fish! We wandered back and forth from tank to tank for a long time. After that, we moved over to the hamsters/gerbils/guinea pigs where he would say "Awwww" and put his head against the glass trying to snuggle with them. Too cute! He enjoyed meeting several dogs, including a 4 month old Great Dane who already stood a foot taller than him. On our way out, we noticed a group of people from a wildlife rescue preserve. They were there to raise donations for their cause, and had brought along some of the animals. They had a huge tortoise, a cockatoo, a huge python and an alligator. GT petted all of them but the snake, which he wasn't too keen on (I'm not sure if it was the snake, or the hippie herpetologist that spooked him the most). He was quite upset when we had to leave all these cool animals behind, and he continued to talk about them for a couple of hours after getting home.

Well, I really didn't mean to ramble on about Griffin so much...but I'm trying to blog a little more frequently, and you blog about what you know. Needless to say, my life more or less revolves around that little guy.

I finally got DSL at home, so I've been really enjoying some new peer to peer programs, which I will try to talk about next time.