Author: Steven

I have a little 10″ netbook that I put Mac operating system on, and I like it well enough.  Seporah and Felicity and I went down to the park, where they played and I watched them and wrote some things down for school on my laptop.  For the last couple of weeks I have been noticing ants coming out of my laptop from time to time, and I just assumed that 1 or 2 went into the keyboard to get food and then came out.  Well, the laptop was getting treated a little less gently than normal and getting shakin by kids and such, and suddenly I count like 10 ants on it.  Oh crud I think.  About 3 months ago I had to take apart an external dvd player because it was completely infested with ants, thousands and thousands of them.  So I only see a few ants and think I better take this thing apart and head off an infestation.  I take apart the keyboard and pop off the back, and pop out the ram, harddrive, wireless card, motherboard.  And really, I take everything completely apart on the lower half of my laptop.  I pull out maybe 100 ants, brush it all apart, and prepare to put together then 20 some odd pieces and 30-40 some odd screws that I had to separate to clean it up.  And I notice something.  Ants were pouring out of the screen.  I had never taken apart the screen, so I was a little tentative to work on it, but once I got it opened up, there were thousands of ants in there, larvae, eggs, queens.  Seriously.  Thousands and thousands.  So I spent like 3 hours today taking apart and putting back together my laptop.  But I am writing this post on it, and it is infestation free now.  =)

Only one problem, and it is truly a common one for me.  I put it all back together, it all works and all, but I had a singular screw left over.  Ugh, I hate it when I do that.  =)

yeah, I went to a new student orientation at the University of Hawaii, West Oahu, where I will be starting school in August. I was wearing this shirt, mostly to see what would be said, and to kind of show where I was coming from, and to just be me. Anyway, I got so many compliments on the shirt, including one from a professor. Everyone said they love President Obama and they love my shirt. Let me stress that they professor who said he loved my shirt was a history professor!

And here is the shirt. I had to choke down the laughs every time someone complimented it.

Bonus points if you can name all the others in the shirt. I will post the answer as a comment in a week or so, if I remember. =)

If you are a bug you want to eat:

a. Sugar
b. Powdered Sugar
c. Brown Sugar
d. Flour
e. Bisquick
f. Rice

Yeah, we can’t keep the ants out of our rice and I don’t even know what keeps getting into the flour and bisquick. But believe me, the stuff that gets into the flour and bisquick is icky. It also goes after hot cocoa mix and season spice. We haven’t eaten shrimp in probably over a year now, and there is a story there, but I am not allowed to tell it. =)

So most of you know that I am in Texas now with the girls. I thought I ought to tell about our trip so far and keep everyone in the loop. Maybe even with some pictures. =)

So the scariest part, or the part I was most nervous about, was the plane ride. I mean, I wasn’t too worried about actually being in Texas alone, as Dad and Patricia and my grandpa would be there to help out with the kids and it would all be just fine. But me alone with 2 toddlers on the plane? That is just plain scary!

I shouldn’t have worried. I should have known I could count on the sexist way that strangers treat dads with children, showering praise on them while treating them as incompetent Homer Simpson wannabes.

So Märia dropped us off at around 615 or so for an 805 plane ride. We were at our gate by 635, and had an hour and a half to burn. And the place was empty. I can’t imagine a better place for two toddlers to explore than a nearly empty airport terminal. They had a blast running and jumping in and out of the terminal chairs and looking out the big windows and seeing the “big jet”s. There is this big jet on Seporah’s favourite show that goes by the name “big jet” and that was all Seporah could say. And boy was she happy when she found out that she was gonna get to ride a big jet!

So we boarded the plane and I can’t imagine having gotten a nicer seatmate. We were in the middle rows, with three seats. I was on one end with Felicity on my lap, and Seporah was in the middle. On the other side of Seporah was a nice asian lady (and so Seporah had to call her “doctor” – there is a story there all by itself!) who horribly missed her two grandchildren. Seporah literally spent half the 5 hour flight with her head in this lady’s lap, and both of them loved the whole ride! Felicity was mostly good, with only a couple loud, but short fits. The flight attendants all loved the kiddos and gave us extra attention. And you know those special meals and snacks that cost extra money? Yeah, not for us. Free food!

So the first plane ride went very well, and we made it to Los Angeles in one place physically and mentally. Our layover in Los Angeles was 4 hours long, by design believe it or not. Märia and I thought they might need some running around time between the flights and it turned out to be a good idea. But there was a surprise for us waiting at LAX. Our next ride was at a different terminal, and we had to ride a bus to get there! Seporah had a blast riding the bus, and she called it a train of course. So we got to another nearly empty terminal and I found an electrical outlet to charge up the laptop so they would have a movie to watch on the next plane and they started running around.

Our next plane was empty. Seriously. It was one of those smaller planes that have 3 seats on one side, and 2 on the other side. We picked seats at the back of the plane, near the engines, on the side that had two seats. The two seat side so we wouldn’t bother anyone, and the back so the noise would drowned out screaming toddlers. Yeah, that wasn’t neccessary. As soon as we were ready to take off a stewardess came back and said it was silly for us to sit on the two seat side when there were so very many seats open. So they moved us up mid plane and over to the side with 3 seats. The three seats in front of us were empty, and the three seats behind us were empty! We had plenty of room! This was a flight without a meal, just pretzels and a drink, but the flight attendants gave us free first class snacks and cookies. Both girls were good on this flight too, and Seporah got some sleep. Felicity wouldn’t, and she seemed really sad, but didn’t throw too much trouble.

Okies, that is it for now, that was plenty long. Here are some pictures at the airport to reward you for reading so much drivel. =)

Yeah, so life is crazy, but it always is, probably for everyone.

Felicity is saying many many words. Her vocabulary has pretty much exploded in the last month. 2 months ago she was evaluated by the state as being roughly 3 months behind with her communication skills. 2 days ago she was evaluated as being 2 months ahead. The speech therapist totally thought we were just paranoid due to Seporah’s recent diagnosis and that we were wasting her time. She said it very nicely though. =)

Yeah, Seporah was recently diagnosed officially as having high functioning autism. She started school and just completed her first week. She cries every morning when she has to go, and goes kicking and screaming, and then at the end of the day she seems like she had fun. We have done lots of extra work with her though, and she says her name now and says she is 3 maybe one in three times we ask her. She is improving, although the improvement isn’t really related to her school. Probably too early to tell on that one though.

The school isn’t really getting a real chance though. We have been planning on me and the girls going to Texas for over a year, although it got pushed back and the plans finalized only last February. Märia and I had a knock down drag out, or as knock down drag out as we get, over whether we would stay so Seporah would stay in school. I just couldn’t put it off anymore though, and so we will be going to Texas this coming week. Hope to have lots of fun and see lots of peoples! Maybe Seporah will start school again after the summer break, will probably be completely determined on how much and what kind of progress she makes over the summer. We hope to have her potty trained by then though. =)

Funny thing about the school. It is an “affirmative action and equal opportunity employer”. Lets bust out websters.com here:

Affirmative action:

A term referring to various government policies that aim to increase the proportion of African-Americans, women, and other minorities in jobs and educational institutions historically dominated by white men. The policies usually require employers and institutions to set goals for hiring or admitting minorities.

Equal opportunity:

the right to equivalent opportunities for employment regardless of race or color or sex or national origin

Yeah, I don’t get how you can be both. One or the other, but they are most assuredly mutually exclusive.

The girls are incredibly cute right now. Seporah is potty training again, on and off for the last 2 weeks, but seriously for the last 2 days. Sorry Dad and Patricia, it is gonna be a fun and stinky ride when we come down. =) But I will change all the dirty stuph. =)

Rokit Fuel went out of business. Basically a disgruntled worker who got fired for being incompetent sued them and they were racking up legal fees, so they couldn’t keep their heads above water. It really sucks for them. Give them a call if you want to buy any, last of it is almost gone. =) rokitfuel.com

The pool is back open! Today was it’s first day. Yesterday there was a sign up that said “We’re sorry, the pool will be closed for 3 to 4 weeks”. Märia and I assumed this would mean 4-6 weeks. The sign went up Dec 8. You do the math.

Märia bought a stretch/yoga dvd, and Seporah is totally kicking Momma off the mat so she can have it. We got out a towel for Seporah, but she wanted the one Mommy used. And when Märia moved over to the towel, she wanted that one too! But she is super cute doing the stretches, she does them just right.

I made yogurt. And then I threw it away. And then I realized it was SUPPOSED to taste that bad, I didn’t make it wrong, I just didn’t add as much sugar as the store adds. Next time I will add the sugar. Bye Bye half gallon of milk.

Yeah, to get into college they want me to show proof of PPD test and MMR immunization. I offered my military ID. They said that didn’t work. I couldn’t figure why, you know how many shots the Army gives you? NO ONE is ever behind on their shots!

Yeah, I am not even laughing at this stuph, so I know it isn’t funny. I tried though. =)

Yeah, so yesterday was Glenn Beck’s We Surround Them event, and seeing as I don’t have cable, I had to find a place to see it.  I ended up linking up with a MeetUp group and they had arranged with Chili’s to see it there.  So I drove down to Chili’s, and we went to watch it, but Chili’s tells us they don’t have Fox or Fox News.  So we were going to go down and watch it at someone’s house who lived their in Kapolei.  I volunteered to stay back and round up anyone who was running late, so they didn’t miss the event.  Well I rounded up a couple, but we told about 5 minutes later that I needed to leave the premises as I was soliciting people away from the restaurant.  Now while it is true that they would have gone into Chilis if I hadn’t rounded them up, they would have gone in there looking for our event, and probably just left, so I think this is stupid.  So after I get kicked out (and the people I rounded up decided to watch it at their homes anyway) I called the event manager and got directions over to their house.  

Watched the last 30 minutes of the show, and had a blast with the others who were there.  Can’t think in complete sentences right now, kids crazy and I am up and down with this post.  

So after the event, I headed home.  And ran out of gas.  Now I have never run out of gas before, and I always push vehicles to the limits of how far they can go on a tank.  But this is a new vehicle to me.  I bought it from a friend who was leaving the island and didn’t have anything to do with it, for $200.  So there I am on the side of the road, late picking the girls up from Karen’s house, when this Texan drives up.  Cowboy hat, rugged jeans, boots, plaid shirt, thick Texan accent.  The picture would have been perfect if he hadn’t been driving a yuppie SUV rather than a big truck.  Granted, there are manly SUVs, but this wasn’t one of them.  Anyway, he said he would go get me some gas, and left again.  About 15 minutes later he is back, with 5 one gallon containers of gas.  He helped me put them in my car, helped me put them back away, and wouldn’t take a dime for them.  “This is America, we ought to help each other.”  Anyway, the nicest guy in the world, and Karen didn’t yell at me about being late, so it all worked out.  =)

gotta get to the kids, life is crazy in here

And Seporah and Felicity were both super good about opening their mouths and letting the dentist do what he needed to do.  Neither cried or caused anything that looked like a fuss or fit. I was quite happy with them and so was Märia.  But something happened in the dentist office that ruined my whole day.  We were watching the tv in the waiting area when a PSA for Pres Obama came on between episodes.  I was absolutely shocked (and then wondering why I was shocked, such is the media today) to see this commercial indoctrinating our children!  I pulled this vid off of the nickjr webpage, but this is only half the vid, the half that was minutely more stomachable than the other half.  The other half talked about what a good politician he is, what great speeches he writes, and how he brings us all together.  I am sure it will be making its way onto the web soon.  Anyway, here it is.  Know that they are going after your children.

Four brothers, none of them democrats.

   -Echo, responding to a man who gives her a handgun and asks her if she knows how to use it.  From the new show Dollhouse, which I recommend.  Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) has never come out with a bad show yet.  =)