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.