Zoos

Last week, I took my older daughter (she's almost 5) to the zoo. That was an experience.

She's old enough now to start learning a bit about the animals, instead of just ooh-ing and ahh-ing at them, so as we walked through the zoo, bundled up in our coats, I told her some interesting facts about the animals we saw, and she told me what she knew about them.

"Daddy, a zebra can run very, very fast."

"An elephant nose is a trunk, so an elephant eats with his nose."

"If a snake bites you, you'll get blood, and it will hurt."

And of course, she had questions:

"Daddy, what is that baby camel doing?"

"It's nursing. Its mother is giving it milk."

"You mean like Mommy gave me milk, and gave my little sister milk?"

I was pretty impressed that she realized that it was the same thing, and I told her so. She's a smart cookie, that kid. As we started down the path, we heard a rooster crowing, but couldn't find it. Eventually we realized that it was up in a tree. Neither of us had ever seen a chicken in a tree before, so we sat on a bench and watched it for a while, until it flew down to get something to eat. Neither of us had ever seen a chicken fly before, either, but we have a pet bird at home, so my daughter knew all about flying birds. She told me how the chicken used its feathers to fly down. I'm just glad she didn't ask why it was in the tree in the first place.

All in all, it was a pretty great day.

Birthdays at the Office

Last week, we had the quarterly birthday celebration at work, and went out for lunch. I didn't know this, but our supervisor called ahead to the restaurant and arranged a cake, with candles and a singing waiter, to be delivered to our table. Apparently, that's just what they do, 4 times a year, to acknowledge the birthdays. It's good for office morale, especially for the relatively new guy like me, who's birthday is coming up in a few months.

It was a fun lunch, and the best part was, it came out of petty cash. We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue, took over 3 tables, and absolutely didn't talk shop. We told all the dirty jokes that we can't tell at the office, we talked about our vacation plans, we talked about our kids, and we came up with the weirdest possible combinations of ingredients to take to the grill.

That last was pretty good, actually. I don't know if you're familiar with Mongolian barbecue, but the way it works is this:

There are tables full of ingredients. One table for meat, poultry, and fish ingredients, one table for vegetable ingredients, and one table for spices and sauces. You pick up a bowl, fill it up with whatever you want, add the spices and sauces you want, and take it to the grill.

The grill is about 7 feet across, with 5 or 6 grillers, who take people's bowls on a first-come, first-served basis. They dump everything on the grill, and use long wooden sticks to stir and mix it. When it's done cooking, it goes back in the bowl and you go eat. There are dishes of tortillas at the tables.

Definately a good meal, and definitely party food. And if you don't like it, there's no one to blame but yourself.

One last note: I have no idea how much is genuinely Mongolian, or even if Mongolians like to barbecue. But it was a good birthday celebration.

What do You do for Fun?

So. I've been spending some time with this blog, just talking about what's fun, what do I do for fun, why I find it fun, what sort of things I'd change to make them more fun, and quite a bit about my kids, who are still little, and therefor a lot of fun to spend time with.

But enough about me for a day. What do you all do for fun? Comments are welcome, and I'd love to get a bit of a discussion going about what's fun and what's not, but mainly, I'd like to get some ideas. Sometimes, it seems that trying to enjoy life is like running your head into the brick wall of the DMV beauracracy; if you do it long enough, and with enough persistence, you'll eventually make some progress.

So what makes it so hard to enjoy life? Is it the ratrace of work? The never ending mountain of laundry in the back room? Or the fact that no matter how much overtime you put in, there're always more bills to pay and not enough money to pay them? How do you get around all of that? How do you escape?

I spend a lot of time with my kids, or with my friends. I try to make time with my wife as good as possible. I try to never lose sight of what's important, and to never forget about what's not important. It's not secret, that, but it does make life a little better.

So what do you do?

Why Does He Do It?

Last Saturday, I dropped in on an old high school buddy of mine. I didn't call first, though. If I had, he would have gotten out from under his car.

You see, fixing that old car is what he does for fun. It's a '67 Pontiac something or other, and it's been in his garage for as long as we've known each other. His dad bought it in 1982, and he sort of inherited it last year. He says that he'll get it going, as a memorial to his dad.

I can respect that, but I don't think that 25 years in a garage, with a couple of guys tinkering on it one weekend a month has done much to improve the drivability of this vehicle. Of course, wild horses couldn't drag that opinion out of me within 10 miles of my friend. It's a good thing this blog is sort of private, isn't it?

So there I was, sitting in my old bud's garage, with my feet propped up on the rear bumper of this car, beer in one hand and scratching his dog behind the ears with the other hand, and wishing that there was better heat in there. His wife was in the kitchen, baking cookies with their kid. If it weren't for the beer, I'd've felt like I was sitting inside a Norman Rockwell painting.

But then, what's wrong with that? Small town America might be fading, and it's hard to find it in the suburbs, but it did exist, and it still does exist, and there was something bright and beautiful about it, for all it's provincial garb. And maybe that's what his car project is really all about.

It's a July Free Slots Tournament!

Every now and then, I get online and play the Internet casinos. OK, so maybe it's not the smartest thing to do, but I make sure to follow some simple rules: I never, ever pay more than my budget; I never, ever chase a loss; and I always have a good time, win or lose. It works, and it saves me the airfare to Vegas or Atlantic City, or a drive downtown or across the river. And of course, the games are a lot of fun.

Mostly, I'll play blackjack or video poker, but sometimes I'll get to the online slot games. This month, that's a sure thing.

One of my favorite online casinos, All Jackpots, is running a great promotion on their slot games. It's called the Free Slots Tournament, and the "kicker" is that the entry fees for the tournaments are waived, so you can get into them anytime you want, just by playing the slot games.

This is a great promotional gimmick. The games are great, if you're just looking for a quick escape, and the prizes are real. I even won $100 dollars on the second tournament I entered! Just because this is gambling on the Internet doesn't mean you have to lose money; as long as you set a gaming budget and stick to it, you can have a great time without breaking the bank, and there's always the chance to win a big prize.

There is one thing: before you play, make sure to read the terms and conditions, and the tournament rules. You're playing online, after all, and it's not like you can ask anyone what the rules are. So make sure you know in advance. You'll have a better time, and there won't be any surprises. But mostly, just have fun. Online casinos are escapism, pure and simple, and there is a time and place for that. Enjoy it!

Lazing the Day Away, with Trains

So last Sunday was one of those long lazy days that can do so much to recharge the batteries. I had nothing much to do, and nowhere to go, and no one to meet, and I made sure to take the absolute fullest advantage of it.

In the morning, for a few hours, I took out the old Lionel O-gauge trains that have been sitting my basement ever since we cleared out my parents' basement two years ago. I don't normally like tasks that involve lots of packing and unpacking, but this one was genuinely fun. Probably because I never knew what I would find in each new box.

There were 50 or 60 pieces of track, two big engines and a smaller steam engine replica, about two dozen boxcars and flatcars, and four cabooses. There was even a box of landscaping materials and buildings, all to the same scale as the trains.

Once I had it all unpacked, and out on the floor, I set up a loop of track about 3 feet across, hooked a control unit to it, and plugged everthing in. I tried out all three locomotives, and all the cabooses; I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were all in working order, with no burned out lights or malfunctioning horns. Other than a strong smell of ozone when the trains were running, everything seemed tip top.

With that in mind, I started planning the next project: I'm going to get the trains back in operation. Dad would appreciate it.

Music For Free, Sort Of

It's getting late, and I've spent way too much time tonight sitting at the computer. I really shouldn't have, because I've got to work in the morning, and it's not like I'm doing anything that can't wait for the weekend, but it's like this:

My wife set up a music file sharing server on our computer. Some of her co-workers recommended it to her, and the other day, when I got home, I found it all set up, and downloading.

That was it, for me. This wasn't the sort of thing I'd've set up on my own, but now that it was there, on the computer, it was too good to pass up. So I asked my wife to show me how it works, and I set it to start downloading some of my favorite songs. This would be a big day.

You see, a few years ago, I lost my CD collection. It was in my car, we were in an accident, and the car was totaled. When I went to the junk yard to sign over the title and collect our stuff from the wreckage, I didn't see the discs. I figured they must be a home somewhere. About six months later, when we moved to our current place, I still couldn't find the discs. Now I think that the guys at the junkyard got themselves a music collection. But I have digressed....

eMule isn't the fastest system, but works reasonably well, and after a few days of patience, I found that I had half a dozen of my favorite songs back, and available to listen to. And if you ask, yes, getting the music was worth the wait. After all, free is definitely a better deal than a record store can offer.

Well, almost free. It's polite to keep the downloaded files accessible to other eMule users; after all, this is a file sharing service. But I don't think that sharing is too high a cost.

A Wedding

I went to a wedding last weekend. I didn't know the bride or groom; rather, my wife and I are friends of the groom's mother, and she invited us. I must admit, it was really nice to see how happy she was; and how many people were there to share it.

So, it was quite a party. I should have expected it, since it was thrown by two Jewish mothers, but the food was excellent, and extraordinarily plentiful. There was a little chicken and angel hair appetizer that was amazing. And the bar was well stocked. I had a few too many rum-and-cokes, which might explain why I felt the way I did at work all day today.

Getting home at 2am might also help to explain that. I haven't been out that late since college, and I'm really not used to it. The day after the affair, my eyes felt like a pair of cracked ball bearings, and I had aches in places that I'd forgotten I had.

It was worth it, though. My wife and I arranged a sleep over play date for the kids, with some friends of ours, and then we went out had a great time. We drank, we danced, we called a cab to get home.... For a night, we felt like we were 20 again, and it was a wedding, so love was in the air.

I must admit, even though we were there for a friend, and we were thrilled to see her on her great day, I think that the best part of the night for me was getting a chance to just cut loose with my wife. We haven't had a chance to go out and dance since our older daughter was born, and she's almost 5 now. Look at this; I'm even measuring the times of our lives by the ages fo our children! That's a sign that we needed a night like that.

So here's to the newly married couple, and to their unlimited future together, but also, here's to me and my wife, who feel like a couple of kids again!

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Ever Play 21? Why Not 21 Trivia?

I was websurfing the other day, and found a fun little trivia game, completely by accident. It's called the 21 Trivia Competition, and it's actually a competition. I think it's sponsored by an online casino, but it seems pretty harmless. It's a simple raffle drawing, basically, but with a twist.

The twist is, before you can enter for the prize, you have to play a trivia game about the number 21. The questions are bunched in groups of 3, and you can't go on until you complete a group. Each set of questions is harder than the one before. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?

Well, it is. The rules of the game even allow you to go googling for the answers (in fact, they encourage it!). I don't think they want anyone to get any wrong answers, really. Because once you've gotten to the end, and answered all the questions, you can enter the prize drawing. The prize is $21,000, which of course is a thousand dollars for each question, so that's a pretty good rate, I think.

And now, you ask, did I play the game? Yes, I did. And I found all 21 correct answers. Some didn't need much finding (3 times 7 is ?), but some were a bit of a challenge. And did I enter the drawing? Yup. I actually did. So now I wait.

Keeping it together

I have a large plastic container hidden deep in my closet underneath piles of other random things that seem to have no other place. This plastic box has a green handle that pops up for easy carrying. The box is rather heavy, although all that is in it are photographs, spanning my entire life; obviously from the days before digital photography.

Do you have an old repository of photos and aren't sure what to do with them? Go out and buy a photo album or even just a sketchbook, or even a notebook, if you don't mind lined paper. Then, go through your photos and categorize them and place them in your new scrapbook!

Scrapbooking - makes you think of old age, of lace, and flowery things, perhaps? Not at all. For those who like it simple, just paste in your photos and give them dates and captions. If you're a little more artistically inclined, try cutting things out of your favorite magazines, phrases and pictures in bright colors and gluing them around your photos in interesting and creative ways. And nothing says that your photos need to be glued straight, or in a line in the center of the page. Be different, be unique, do it your way.

In the end, you'll have volumes of visual testimony on your own life. And not only will it be yours, it will be a valuable resource for generations to come. The more I get into researching family history, the more I wish that my ancestors had preserved something attesting to their identities and lives.

So give it a try. You have my word.

A Good Read

The other day, I started cleaning out the boxes of stuff in the basement. These are the boxes left over from the last two times we've moved, and for some reason never quite unpacked everything. Just to put in perspective, the last time we moved was 2002, and before that, 1998. At least one of these boxes had been sealed up for 9 years.

Most of the stuff in the boxes was just crap. A lot of old college papers, some old newpapers that I don't remember why we kept them, and a few odds and ends. God bless the Hefty trash bags, because that's were most of it ended up.

But one box, a fairly small one, yielded up a bit of treasure. It had books. About thirty of them, mostly paperbacks, and some that I had been looking for since the last time we moved. Finding them put me in hog heaven.

Among the books was one of my all-time favorites, The Caine Mutiny. I hadn't read it in years, but I still remember the story. It used to be one of those books that reread every year, just so I don't forget it. The movie was great, too, with Humphrey Bogard as Captain Queeg. Unforgettable.

So the last few nights I've been sitting up on the couch after everyone has gone to bed, and I've been reacquainting myself with a favorite book. Does it get any better than that?

Who Blogs for Fun?

So, I have been keeping this blog for a while, talking about all sorts of things that I do for fun, or have found to be fun, or just plain like, but it never occurred to me to blog about ... blogging! Let's face it, I wouldn't be keeping this blog if it wasn't fun, or if I didn't like it.

So what's fun about it? I mean that question, but only in a semi-serious way.

What's fun about blogging? I'm sitting here, at a computer, throwing my thoughts into the void, and sometimes I even wonder if anyone reads them. The truth is, though, that readership isn't really relevant: I would do this anyway, even if I knew for a fact that no one would ever read it, or ever care.

So why do it?

Well, it's a good way to keep a journal, for starters. And it's a good way to organize some thoughts. I have a private blog, that no one will ever see, where I keep the dark and dirty secrets or the serious ventings and rantings that I know my wife would never like, and I also keep a semi-private blog, where I post pictures of the kids for friends and family to see. And there's this blog. The one that's public.

I keep this one because sometimes, I just need to shout from a rooftop. Maybe what I have to say isn't earth-shaking, shattering news, or even of any particular importance, but we live in a world where it's increasingly hard to say anything, and increasingly hard to get noticed in any way. So maybe this is just my way of bypassing the standard routes.

The internet makes it possible. Anyone can publish virtually anything (which is not always good; look at the rampant anti-semitism on Wikipedia, for example), and that has introduced a new sort of freedom to the freedom of speech.

And maybe that's why I do it.

Nah. I just like to talk.