A return to Geekiness

Although Rini had a bit of an upset stomach last night, she seemed okay today. Hence I was bold and took her with me to visit a friend I have not seen for some time. He was beside himself when he saw the DVDs that I brought over, Clone Wars Volume one and two. We managed to get through the first disc, but we had to get going home by thetime we got the second disc in. We watched up to the knighting of Anikin, but then we realized that Rini needed to get to sleep, and she wouldn't be able to sleep there!

Although the visit was partially inturupted by my rushing out temporarily to pick up Caitlin from the Women's Broadcast, we were able to get some good guy time in. Caitlin is right. I don't spend enough time with other guys. I partially blame my old job for that. Kinda hard to keep in touch with church friends when YOU DON'T GO TO CHURCH! Very glad that my new job lets me attend church meetings again. Have I mentioned that before? Well, it bears repeating.

Another geeky thing I did today, which has been long overdue, was that I burnt my first CD with the burner on our computer. Ridiculously easy, and the only reason that I didn't do it earlier is simply because I didn't have any discs to burn. Funny that it only took a trip to Staples to fix that problem. Further funny is the fact that I worked in a store where we had CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and Lightscribe versions of both discs stocked on a regular basis, and I never thought to dig out $10 and buy a dozen or so. I NEVER bought discs at The Source by CC, and I worked there for two years! That's rather odd, seeing I bought the burner, USB card, memory card reader, camera, memory cards, and a boatload of batteries, as well as a wireless router and card, not to mention a network card for my landlord's computer all at The Source. All that stuff, and I never bought CDs. And it's not that I went and bought CDs somewhere else. I never bought them anywhere until I was done, and into my new job.

That is really weird.

Now that I got that out of my system, I should mention that it was not the burning of the disc itself that was long overdue, but rather what is on the disc. Pictures of Rini, Caitlin and myself for my parents. They do have internet, but it's dialup, and the postal service can get the CD, with 160 pictures on it, to their computer faster than their dialup could. There are actually a lot more pictures, and videos, that I could have put on the disc. Hmm... Maybe I'll burn another tomorrow. The mail won't be picked up until Monday anyway.

Service Surprise

A couple days ago, I received an email from my Elders Quorum
Presidency. With the women's broadcast tonight, there was a certain
amount of chairs that needed to be set up. Usually this kind of thing
is brought up on Sunday, but I guess there was some kind of scheduling
goof up, because I only received a couple days notice. Nevertheless,
I did have the time available and I made a note to attend.

Caitlin and Rini came along, so we made it a bit of a family activity.
Especially when we overestimated how long it would take to get to the
chapel, and we wound up taking a walk around the building.
Fortunately, the weather was seasonably warm, and we had some decent
jackets on. Rini had a ball running around looking at all the trees
and fallen leaves. I'm sure she would have loved it even more if the
leaves crunched, but it rained this morning, so the leaves only
crunched a little if at all.

Once we got in, we were still a little early for setting up the tables
and chairs. The only reason that we were able to get into the chapel
was because another ward was having a baptism, and they arrived early
to fill the font. We found a couple basketballs and a soccer ball
that we played with for a little until we decided that we should start
setting up. We had just set up about ten tables when we received word
of how the setting was supposed to be, and we were doing it wrong.
Simple fix though, and even simpler once a couple more people showed
up.

That's kind of the sad part too. Only two other men showed up to help
with the chairs and tables. There were a number of sisters who were
helping in the kitchen and working on the centerpieces. Caitlin also
helped with laying out the tablecloths. Meh. It really wasn't all
that tough with three brethern.

Good exercise!

Tomorrow, I'm going to get together with a friend I haven't seen for
some time. I'm looking forward to this guy's night/afternoon out,
even though we'll be spending the time with our respective children
because our wives will be at the Women's Broadcast. I only hope that
Rini doesn't have anything contageous, but I'm thinking the reason she
threw up tonight was because of the brownie she ate.

Another thing I'm a little concerned about is that she's not saying
"Please" anymore. Whenever we prompt her to say it, she becomes
silent. Or screams. Or hits. But whatever she does, she does not
say "Please." She is almost 2 years old, and she might be moving into
ye olde rebilious stage one. Officially there are three rebelious
stages. One at two years old, the second at five, and the third at
thirteen. I'm thinking that each one is progressively stronger, and
builds upon the previous one. None of the stages end, but tend to
lessen in intensity from time to time. Like when they're asleep!

Takes after her father

You could say that Rini was taking after her father, or her mother
depending on how you define the context, in her behaviour tonight.
We were trying to teach her how to ask to get out of her chair.
Prompting "Mama", "Down", "Please". She was being quite the goof,
because she would say "Mama, <something unintelligable assumed to be
'down'>" then after our prompt for 'please', "Juice!" Yeah.

Me: "Daddy"
Rini: "Dada"
Me: "Down"
Rini: <mumble something or other, but I guessed it to be 'down'>
Me: "Please"
Rini: "Juice!" <giggle hysterically>

So I made up a song, sung to the tune of the Chorus of "Jerk It Out"

My daughter
Is such a goof.
The way she's acting is more than proof.
She frustrated my wife,
Hey but that is life.

I can't wait until this girl is a teenager.

OH WAIT! I can!

No more drip!

This might sound a little odd to celebrate a lack of sound, but
anytime Rini goes down for a nap, you would think that it is time for
a celebration of sorts.

Today, I fixed up Andy's computer, and he in turn fixed up our kitchen
tap. The computer was a very easy fix. First, the network cable was
plugged into the on board ethernet port, which doesn't have any
drivers. This was a problem that I already solved by installing a new
ethernet card. They had just forgotten to plug the cord into it.
Also the cord was not plugged into the router, so we were not getting
any internet signal either. Again, quick fix. Finally, the biggest
reason the internet was not working: the modem was on standby. Press
of a button and we were in business again.

The taps were fairly simple as well. First we shut off the water to
the taps, simple, then we removed the... parts. I want to call them
spigots, but I think the proper name is cartridge. In any case, once
that part was out, it was plain that the reason for the leak was due
to the leak in the O-rings. They were quite damaged and needed to be
replaced. One trip to Home Depot, and the solution presents itself.
Or so I thought. Andy and I went to Home Depot with the cartridges
and the O-rings, hoping that it was be a quick, in and out ordeal.
Turns out they were sold out of the O-rings that we needed, but there
were some other stores that had them. Clairview and St. Albert.
Uh... Yeah. No. We just bought new cartridges that cost $4 more, and
they also had new O-rings on them. After that, it was a simple matter
to install the cartridges. Then turn on the water, and... NO MORE
DRIPS!

Last night, we kept a 4L milk jug under the tap to catch the water.
It was full by morning. The time to fix that tap had definitely come!
It is so much nicer not to have to worry about the tap, or listen to
the incessant dripping. Caitlin is very happy for that!

And as the saying goes, "Happy Wife; happy life."

Prayful girl

One thing that I'm proud that Rini has figured out is prayer. I'm not
quite sure if she's figured out that we address Heavenly Father
because we're speaking to God, but she does cross her arms, and most
of the time she will stay still for the entirety of a prayer. She
does have some trouble when we're in sacrament meeting, and the
opening or closing prayer goes on for longer than five minutes. Two
or three minutes, she's fine. When we have our evening family prayer
or mealtime prayer, she's fine!

We would get her to start saying prayers, but we are still having a
trial of a time to get her to ask for drink, toys or 'up.' Whenever
we try to prompt her, ie. Say 'Daddy', say 'juice', say 'please', she
usually follows those prompts. When she's impatient, she'll jump
right to the end and say 'peaz'.

The closest we have tried for family scripture study is reading her
Book of Mormon board books. She also has a Bible board book, and we
read from that sometimes. We need to move on to the bigger things.

One other thing. Rini hasn't said "Thank you" very much, but she can
say it in Chineese quite well! Maybe we should do that for a bit.

More exploration

I think that Rini is getting to be smarter than we give her credit
for. That, and we are going to have to seriously look into getting a
proper bed for her very soon. The playpen isn't working so well
anymore because she's figured out that the bottom can come up, and
when she does that, she gets stuck.

We have the offer of a toddler bed for $50. The only thing is that we
would have to travel to St. Paul to pick it up. Oie. Might have to
hold out on that one, or find something a little bit closer. Maybe
IKEA, or maybe Kijiji. I hear there's lots of stuff there! The other
thing to check would be that yahoo group that I used to subscribe to.
I'll have to dig around for that though.

Rini is getting to be a climbing fiend. One of her favourite
activities is to climb on the computer chair, and then let herself
down by sliding underneath the armrest. She also does that with the
rocking chair too. I'm thinking we might have to take her bouldering
one day, but we'll see how that pans out.

One thing that she's climbing quite well is her car seat. We only
have to help her when she gets out now. She quite capable of getting
into the seat all by herself! Mind, she hasn't quite figured out how
to secure the seat, so we do have to conitnue helping with that little
bit.

Kallie pointed out that skill development works differently with girls
than it does with boys. The general pattern of development with boys
is: First, fine motors skills; Second, verbal skills; and third, gross
motor skills. With girls, the pattern is the opposite. Gross motor
skills develop first, and then you have the verbal skills, and then
the fine motor skills develop. Rini has already mastered the basic
ambulatory skills, such as crawling, walking, running, climbing and
descending stairs. Right now she's trying to pull up the cover on the
base of the playpen. Why? I'm assuming because she can!

A interesting bit of advice I got tongiht from an experienced father
of three boys and two girls. The relationship a father has with his
sons is different than the one that he has with his daughters. Mostly
because the daughters tend to get away with murder. I don't think
that I'll be quite like that. Then again, I've never been a father
before, and I'm just learning as I go here.

Yesterday, Caitlin and I discussed an odd matter, planning in advance.
We discussed when would be the best age for Rini to get a cell phone,
bank account, and allowance. We decided that allowance would start
when she started school, and would segue into compensation for chores
done around the house when she's fourteen. That would be about the
time that we would consider a cell phone. I would want her to have a
phone once she starts dating. Caitlin said sixteen would be the ideal
age for that, but I thought that fourteen would work just as well,
because that's group dating age. We still have at least twelve years
to discuss this, and with the way technology is running, things might
be a bit different in ten years. Or the pessimist in me thinks that
we'll be on the edge of armagedden anyway so we won't be worrying
about trite things like cell phones.

New Job!

Just got the phone call this morning, and I put in my notification soon after. As of 8 Sep 2008, I will be working at Pro-Tech Seal in the Accounts payable department. Wage is higher than where I am right now, hours are better, and it's still close to home! I was getting a little worried because we just started vacation here in Banff, and we are pretty much broke already. I know. Backwards vacation. You're supposed to be broke at the end of vacation!

Still, I'm glad I got this job offer, because I had the worst sleep last night worrying about how our vacation is going to work, since I could only think of the financial turmoil that would be waiting for us back home.

Most everyone was praying for this, and even this morning Caitlin said in our couple prayer, that "I would be lifted of a great burden." She could tell that I was distressed. Wasn't hard to notice!

And I'm just the opposite now. This is going to be a great vacation!