PLANET3RRY

[ed note: I just updated my Tear-a-Day calendar and it was stuck on August 1st, if that's any indication]

I think that I mentioned earlier a little bit of the chaos that was part of The Elder’s graduation of sorts to Kindergarten. The Short version is that the past school year, he has been in a program twith the county that has provided him educational services many because of his Special Needs status (Asperger’s).

We were at a crossroads because he was old enough for Kindergarten and smart enough for the 4th Grade, but socially and developmentally, he could handle preschool, he had done so well to this point. Our choices were to either put him in K-grade or hold him out until 1st grade. We were pushing for another Special Needs style class for 5yos, because there wasn’t one and some of the kids needded that extra transition to mainstream K-grade. There were rumors that we might get one…

Upon arrival from Dallas, we found out that there wouldn’t be a transitional class but that The Elder would get support and his teacher would be #1, #2, or #3. We then find out on Friday from one of The Elder past school mates that there was a Meet and Greet at the school on Thursday. We also had the bus driver call our house because she couldn’t find it!

[Insert Darkness and Chaos Here]

Well, after a few calls we found out that we weren’t the only ones confused or missing the pieces. We learned that The Elder would be in mainstream kindergarten and that he would get support (as needed). This was decided at a meeting with his teacher, his special needs teacher and his former teacher.

a little while later, we found out some background about how The Elder became a Kindergartner. The Child Find group takes a summer vacation, and they reconvene in August (reminds me of the US Congress) and they decide who goes where. They deemed that The Elder was ready for Kindgarten and so he was placed there (kinda at the last minute), which explains why things were confusing for everybody. BUT, now, after 2 staggered classes to introduce the kids to the Kindergarten Atmosphere, The Elder is going 5 days a week with 20 classmates. So Far, So Good. The Younger had a different story…

I think I clocked in around 4 hours of sleep last night. Not all of it was consectuative and not all of it was in my own room. At some point, I think around 4am (1 hour of sleep under the eyelids), I had to go to the bathroom. I had been hydrating myself from the run on Saturday and heard some crazy stomping running around like in the hallway. So, I checked it out, The Elder had gotten up and used the bathroom. So after I was finished, I went to la down with him, since he had seen me, I didn’t want to come into our room.

I think around 5:30 (2.5 hours of sleep), I woke up and went into my room into my own bed. It was like a dream from Heaven to know that our Resourceful and Reliable Au Pair started at 6:30am! I didn’t have to get up immediately to try to figure out breakfast and lunch (for our new Kindergartener) and so I slept in… to 6:45am. That’s when my phone starts to go off (NYSE Market Bell) to let us know that we need to get the kids up and *gulp* ready for school!

And it was nice to just lay in bed for 15 minutes until 7am before I mosied out to the kitchen for coffee.

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We are getting some remnant of Fay right now, which is good since we haven’t had rain in quite a while. Although it’s not as bad as last year. my grass has gotten crunchy in spots.

As a result, I think I may skip today’s interval run. Maybe instead, I will lift weights tonight…

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In a brilliant move last night, I reset my google Reader to “0″. It was at 1000+ of stuff that I needed to read or wanted to read. Don’t freak out about 600 of those were “Deal Websites” and so those go quickly. What DOES suck, actualty it Suckity Suck Sucks is that some of my fave Sites that had amazed a number of blog entries were also reset. I had wanted to save them for when I have time time really absorb the full flavor of the blog post.

But nope. Gone. So if I am totally clueless about something that happened that you posted in your blog, please forgive me.

I’m starting this post at 2:33am (my time). I am hoping that by 2:40am (same day), I will be asleep. “Why Terry, do you post at 2:33am?”

Somehow, this has become the only time in the past 20 some days of August that I have sat to post. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have wanted to post but it never happened. Some good posts have come and gone (in my head) and so I am left to post some memoirs about August in the upcoming days.

2:35am

Well, that whole 2:40am thing isn’t going to happen because I still have to brush my teeth… unless I go caveman… hmm…

I think, this coming up week at work, it will be “somewhat” normal and I will have the time to post when I want to… the good ole days of writing off and on in the morning, working out at lunch, doing some editing in the afternoon, then panicing to publish before I had to leave, ahhh the good ole days. Hopefully, I can get a glimpse of that again.

2:38am

And I have pictures too. I am going to bring my laptop to work, in hopes to get them uploaded and the posted. I keep this blog, not only as a one stop place to incriminant myself and squelch any chance for public office, but I keep it as a reminder of what I have done and who I am. Not that I forget, but I do sometimes, and so if the memory isn’t vivid, then I might forget or I might even misremember the details.

2:40am

Okay, time to wrap this up. The kids will no doubt try to wake me up. Maybe, one day, I will sneak and fall asleep in THEIR room, they would never find me.

2:58am

I’m really going this time…

Yes, there is another Theme here. I wasn’t planning on changing the theme, but we found out that there were errors in the coding of the blog and thus it was causing some backend problems… and that’s NOT a pain in the ass… it was a coding problem. Also, if you ever tried to search something on the last theme, you may have noticed it was spelled “Serach”.

So, I changed my theme to something close, but a little different. A tad bit more artistic. I think the theme just LOOKS easier to read and stuff.

Also there should be some other changes in scenery, such as a Race Report, A picasa Photo Album of Park pictures and a few other things. It had been chaotic in our household, but the dust is settling and we’ve found a “mainstream” kindergartener here and a school-less preschooler. More on these in a bit.

See you real soon!

So what gets in the way of some perfectly good blogging opportunities? Life, that’s what!

I am in the process of making some blog posts, but due to forces beyond our control, our week has gone awry… and so not only did I have little time to blog over the weekend (hence, NO Photo Hunters OR Success Sunday) but today, Monday, leaves me little to get this out…

But, there is hope

for 3 each payments of $33.33

I do have a working draft of Dallas events

and, if you weren’t keeping track of it at home is, uh, RACE WEEK! Yeah, I know… it’s time to win some CRAP! So there’s a post that has to be created…

*sigh* then there is my Trading Blog that is seriously outdated… made me some money in POT today… didn’t see the big drop today… KA-CHING! So, I have stuff about that…

Oh, and I started my training for the marathons and well, that’s a novellette…

And, of course, there’s Terry being T3rrry and so I have that to do…

But wait… THere’s more… if you order in the next 20 minutes, you get not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 posts

plus, if you are one of the first 12,245,565 readers, you’ll get and ASD Athletes update… FOR FREE (a $100 value.)

Stay tuned for the regularly scheduled mayhem goofiness

I am actually injured on two of my appendages. Don’t worry it’s not THAT appendage, but my two injuries are rather annoying.

The first and less severe is a cut across my index finger. It’s right on the tip, so when I type something with my right index finger like “Y U H J I or N” it hurts. In fact, half of typing the word “hurt” hurts. Oi.

The second and more severe injury is VERY annoying. It’s a good thing that I am taking a break in running because the injury is on the bottom of my big toe. It’s about dime size and is really gross. You wanna know how I did it? I didn’t think so. So here’s what happened. I’ll get you a picture if you want!

The kids love it when we play Hide and Go Seek. In fact, it’s really Hide and Scare the Bejeezus Out of The Kids… and that’s the part they love. The Kids will count to 20 (or somewhere close) and I try to go as fast as I can to hide somewhere in the house. Typically, The Younger will peek to see in which direction I am going. Cheater.

So when I hide, I try to find a place that’s in the open but concealed (like behind a door) so when they get close to me, I can jump out from behind the door and scream “BOO”. I know that I do it right, if The Younger falls over after the Scream. In either case, Both kids love it and laugh hysterically and want to do it again, over and over again.

So there are only a limited number of places to hide. One of the better places to hide is behind the Master Bed, there’s a limited amount of space, but very concealing. So that’s what my “target” spot was going to be. there about a 2′ wide space there between the bed and wall. Enough to laydown on the floor and be concealed, but not a whole lot of room to move around and get in there. It’s actually easier to roll off the bed and drop down into the crevass.

So that’s where I was headed.

I run down the hall and cut into the bedroom. I only have a few seconds to hide and to do it stealthy as to avoid detection of my location. So I run and bounce off the bed. In a Jackie Chan-esque move, I lept off the bed, laid my self out flat and side down the side of the bed to my hiding space. I think I had pulled it off, but my toe hurt since I had hit the metal floor vent.

It took the kids a couple of minutes to find me but they did. They Screamed and Laughed and it was time to hide again. So I dashed out of the bedroom and down the hall into the hall bathroom and into the shower, pinned up against the wall so they couldn’t see me. I can hear them trying to figure out where I must have gone.

While listen to them try to find me, I see a spot of blood on the bathtub. Huh, looks fresh. Listening to the kids roam around, not finding me and then I look down. Woah! A small pool of blood has formed and then I realize that my foot hurts. Oi! As I am in the shower hiding from my Kids, the pool is getting larger. It’s probably about the size of a half dollar. I am slowly bleeding to death hiding from my terror-seeking kids, the irony is that this is a great hiding place so much that when I’m passed out from blood loss, no one will find me.

So, now I need to hurry the kids up and let them find me so I tend to my wound. But I wasn’t going to let this good opportunity to mess with The Kids.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?” The Kids call from the Kitchen. The Hall Bathroom is located in the middle of the house with the Kitchen on one end and bedrooms on the other and being in the tub made for a weird echo-y sound.

“I’m in MOMMY’S ROOM!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Master Bedroom (It is my room too…). I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Kitchen!” Patter Patter Patter from the Master Bedroom to the Kitchen. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in The Playroom!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Playroom. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Living Room!” Patter Patter Patter from the Playroom to the Living Room. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Tent (in the Kid’s Room)!” Patter Patter Patter from the Living Room to the Tent. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Hall Bathroom” Patter Patter Patter from the Tent to the Hall Bathroom. The little pool of blood is about the size of half my foot now. The price I pay for amusement. As The Younger approached the Shower Curtain, I pull the curtain back and yell, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” Laughs ensue. And of course, they wanted for me to hide again, but I needed to inspect the damage. Thankfully, I had a hose that I could wash my foot off to see the injury… ouch. As I went back to the Master Bath where there were some first aid items there, I could see spots on the carpet where I had been.

Oh, and I decide not post any picture of my toe. You’re Welcome!

So it’s been healing for the past couple of days. I want  to say that it’s better, but it still hurts. I do put a bandage on it everyday, but I could not imagine having to run on it. It would be a right bloody mess! So, I need to let my foot heal so that it’ll be ready for the massive walking in Dallas next week and then the Fall Marathon training starting the week after (Aug 4th).

After cleaning up the carcass of the lens filter, I think that Stella is okay. I can see something in the view finder, but it does not come up on the pictures. I’ve tested most of her features and she seems to be okay. It’s just that right now, she is lens naked and so I better get my lens covers (from Amazon) before we leave for Dallas next week or I will have to shell out an emergency $20 to get a cover for the lens.

I had wanted to have a new all-purpose lens for her this trip to Dallas, but not this year… however, I probably will still be the unoffical photographer for our National Area again. This year was supposed to be the lens and next year was supposed to be the SpeedLite.

Well, at least Stella is okay.

Today was a pretty different Sunday from Start to up until now. The kids woke up at 6:30am to want food and apparently they wanted hot food since they were requesting my presence in the kitchen. They are strong enough to open up the refrigerator and get the stuff out of there. So I know they won’t go hungry if I don’t wake up.

Since I was still pretty sleepy, I was some what slack at what to make them. Usually it’s First Said, First Made. Today was different, I heard The Younger say “French Toast Sticks” and The Elder say “Daddy Oatmeal”. So that’s what I made.

Later that morning around 9:15, My Lovely and Talented Wife finally joined us from the World of Slumber and so I took that as a sign for me to dump the kids with her and go to Sunday School by myself. So, being the Big Boy that I am, I got ready and got out of the house to Sunday School. We are in an interesting series about Children and how they are Mysteries and not just things to try to control or figure out (like a problem).

While in Sunday School, the skies decided to open up and we had a HUGE rain. While driving home, I was OHHing and AHHing over the storm sewers and wished that I had SOME camera with me to go for a wet Photo Safari.

The rain lasted for awhile and pretty much dashed any plans of doing something fun, like taking the kids out for a run in the double stroller or shooting off some model rockets. So, not knowing what to do, I let nature take its course. Doing this of course leads to total Mayhem and Chaos when the subjects are 3yo and 5yo.

While I was helping My Lovely and Talented Wife with some paperwork, we start to hear some battle cries from over yonder. And not the screams and cries tha,t you understand as parents as fake cries or whines, but the ones that require discipline or a trip to the ER.

The Younger comes down the hall crying a real cry. He is such a faker, but this wasn’t his usual Broadway performance. This was real.

“The Elder Bite me!” The Younger cried.

“The Elder Bit you?”

“Yeah!” Okay, this was serious. Biting is the Capital Punishment Offense in the household. Hell, it’s what got us kicked out asked to leave preschools. It’s a sensory reaction when The Elder gets very frustrated and he loses the ability to control his temper and his body actions and resorts to biting. Now, in The Elder’s defense, The Younger tests him on a regular basis since The Younger is Sensory Seeking, meaning that he HAS to do highly sensory things, hence The Daredevil Incarnate. So The Younger will roll over The Elder to try to get a reaction. And he got one. He got a big one right on his face.

The Elder had bit The Younger on the face. Luckily for The Younger he didn’t get a small chunk that would really bruise badly, but he got a large chunk, which still isn’t all that great. It looks like The Younger was in a bar fight or something. When the Chompers comes down, Here Cometh The Hammer.

You should check out My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Version of the Excitement

Part of the punishment was that the Playroom was CLOSED until further notice and that they had to be near where the Adults were working. So what do two kids do that can’t go outside and have to stay inside and play, without killing each other?

Joint Harassment of The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle

Although “technically” our house is not a gymnasium, the kids can’t tell the difference sometimes. The Younger thinks that every piece of furniture is a trampoline. Boy, I can’t wait until he can hang from the door frame. Hell, what am I thinking… he’s half white Terry boy and filipino, he’s never going to reach the door frame without stilts. [Stilts? He could be a circus performer...]

So, when toys are boring, what else can you terrorize? The DOG. Actually there was some teaching involved in terrorizing the dog. The Elder and The Younger were running around the House trying to get The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle to follow them. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t. The Kids then decided to try to CHASE him. Well, that totally freaks The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle out and he ends up getting wound up. Sure enough, The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle was pretty active for a good session and then decided to take his tired butt to underneath the desk. However, The Kids weren’t done, The Elder was trying to call The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle out from underneath the desk. When it wasn’t working, I tried to teach The Elder to give the “Come Here” command and how to whistle to call him. We’ll have to get video of how he calls the dog….

Creation of Secret Clubs

(Let’s Post some RULES in this place)

This one took off in a different direction. Now that The Younger is potty-trained, he is just about tall enough to pee over the edge of the toilet. I had ran into the bathroom because I had to GO and The Elder was right behind me, “Me Too!” he called.

So while The Elder and I were going to the bathroom, he calls out to The Younger to come to the bathroom.

“YOUNGERRRRRRRR, Come here”

“He can pee like us, we can be a Pee Club,” I said.

“Pee Club?” The Elder questioned.

“Yeah, we can be part of the Pee Club. Rules are that you have to pee standing up and NOT make a mess.”

So now My Lovely and Talented Wife is banished to the Master Bathroom while The Elder is on patrol. Not sure if The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle will apply for membership. If he does and makes it, I am applying him for America’s Got Talent.

Reads: “No Bears in Tent”

disclaimer: we don’t have a bear problem in this part of the house

Create Rules and Regulations

That’s Right! The Males out number the females 4-1

Helping Daddy on the Computer

If I think I have dandriff, I’ll know better now

This thing came out of My Lovely and Talented Wife:

He’s cleaned up pretty well, considering.

Last year was the first year that I ever went to the local town Fourth of July Parade. Apparently, it is a pretty big deal. Why? Because of free crap marketing paraphernalia. For about an hour, local businesses, town officials, other elected officials parade on a section of Kingston Pike from the Farragut High School to the Ingles down the road. Our house has an advantageous position, because we aren’t subject to the road closures and for us to get to the parade and park isn’t that big of a head ache.

So, we watch the parade and the kids are getting candy and coupons and business cards and bouncy balls. I had the foresight to bring a cloth Kroger bag to keep all the candy together. Because, just like at Halloween, all candy must pass through me The Candy Inspector. The point being that we had this bag to carry stuff away.

So trying to instill Civil Responsibility and the theory of “Leaving the place in better shape than how you found it”, I told the kids that they needed to pick up the trash in the street. At first, they were kind of reluctant, why pick up someone else’s trash?

Then they came back with a couple of candies that had been smashed by the vehicles. Then it dawned on them, if there were smashed candy out there, maybe there was unsmashed, edible candy. So, instead of fishing for trash in their 5′ radius, they moved to bigger waters of the middle of the road, the other side of the road, down the road…

This “thinking outside of the box” expanded their universe. The Elder was in the middle of the street and was excited and ran back to where the bag was. He threw his newly found pristine (minus some minor road wear) into the bag and yelled, “SCORE!”

My Lovely and Talented Wife and I looked at each other with humorous grins and she said, “You’re going to blog on that, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”