It's Festival time!

It's been a busy-ish weekend. Today was the church festival. Here, Michelle and Gwen get in a splashing match near the booth Susan and I were working.

Proof that I was there. I might not be working, but I was there.

One of the little girls' highlights; smaching confetti eggs on me.

It's not a festival without a moon-walk.

Miriam gets a tattoo. Grandma and Grandpa would be so proud.

Miri - healed and goofy looking.

Michelle and Giselle. G is in a YMCA exchange program and is staying with us for two weeks.

The whole gang.

Miriam and Gwen go for a spin.

More spinning.

The End

'Sup with Miriam?

I've had a few people ask how Miriam is doing. It's been a while since I last took any pictures and when I do it's often times a blur because she's almost three and never stops moving. Here's a shot I took a whiel back.

You can see she still has some redness and it gets worse if she gets hot or cries.

Still, she's good. We're good. It's all good. Today is a good day.

It takes an immigrant

Michelle called me up from her boyfriend's house to ask me what I thought of the current immigration confabulation. I told her what I thought and let her go. I need to ask her later why she asked. I may or may not be flattered that she cared about my opinion.

I told her that this country was made of immigrants. People crossed the land bridge over the Bering sea. They came in canoes over the Pacific and longboat from Iceland. Immigrants came in schooners and steamships and airplanes. This country would not be without them.

The difference is that those people came to be a part of America. They wanted the part of the dream that is freedom. They sacrificed to be part of the dream though. They gave up property and history and family and language. They waited in lines. They took the worst jobs for the worst pay.

They assimilated into America at a trade. And it seems that they were happy with that trade.

The new immigrants don't strike me as having the same mind-set. The new immigrants want America to be less America and more like where they came from (mostly Mexico these days). America is a country of rules first and foremost. It's what gives us our freedom. And these immigrants are breaking a rule to even get in this country. It's a crappy way to start a relationship.

I think INS should put a fence around each rally and check for green cards and ship out everyone that's illegal. I think there should be fines and jail time for business that hire illegals. If they need the worker so badly, sponsor them and bring them in through the legal channels.

I think that if the Iraqis were to our south then we wouldn't have this issue. We'd have Americans screaming to enforce the border laws. But there is no difference. It's a law.
How is it different if every illegal was able to commit any crime, break any law with impunity?

At the arboretum

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great day. The weather was cool and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Susan and I took the kids to the Mercer Arboretum. There's lots of flowers, and birds, and bugs, and fish. There's also a really nice playground for the kids and myself.

Miriam wanted a picture of this lily.

My beautiful wife. I couldn't count the ways I love her, numbers don't go high enough.

A flutter-by

Gwendolyn at the playground.

Susan took this picture . . . such a serious little girl sometimes.

Miriam moved too fast most of the time to get a good picture, but she found this turtle and we'll let that represent her today.

Michelle goes to Prom

Last week (I think it was last week. It might have the week before. The more kids I have and the older they get the more I lose track of time) Michelle went to Senior Prom with her graduating boyfriend. She looked extra-beautiful.

The nice thing about Michelle is that she is just as beautiful on the inside. Everyone likes her and appreciates her being around. I am very lucky to have her in my life. She's a great daughter.

Pre-prom. Michelle and Gwendolyn

Michelle and Trey, the first of many photo shoots that evening

The Girls that Michelle went to prom with (I don't have a "Guys" version)

A close-up of some of the couples

Miriam's favorite hat

Miriam has to wear a hat for the next year while her skin heals. This is her favorite right now. Props go to the Kyme family for the gift.

 

Testing Google Calendar

I am trying the beta of Google Calendar.
In theory, clicking the button below will open the event on my Calendar and allow you to add it to yours.

I'm using a bookmarklet in Firefox to compile the URL.

We shall see.

Give it a try and report your results back here.
Things that might happen:

1. Prompts you to login to your Google calendar (or create a new account) and add my event
   
2. Prompts you to login to my Google calendar and see the event
3. Does squat
   

An overdue update of Miriam.

Miriam Update

Last Friday we went to see the plastic surgeon again (he of the "Wow" comment).

He didn't recognize Miriam since the swelling had gone down so much.

After examining her for a few minutes he deemed her fine and healthy.

Would care now is as follows:

• Hat when outside for the next year
• Crazy careful to make sure she has sunscreen on for the next 4-6 months
• Reasonable care for the rest of the year to have sunblock
• Avoid high sun exposure for a s long as we can after that.

The goal is to make sure that the new skin doesn't tan differently than the old skin and not match.

So all is well . . .

Define exercise

Every time my wife walks into a room that I am in I suck in my gut.

It's not a big gut. On a grand scale it's pretty average.

It IS two inches wider than it was when we were married. That was almost ten years ago though. Compare that to any of the kids and I look pretty good. I look great!

I would rather it was smaller when my wife looked at it. So I suck it in. I keep it in. I keep it in for hours at a time.

It hasn't gotten any smaller. It doesn't seem fair. As much effort as I put into it I should be getting some benefit.

On an unrelated note, I'm doing more reps of heavier beer and not getting any upper body joy.
What's up with that?

Check out the ears on Ron. He's a Desktop pet by Stardock. Built with DesktopX technology.

More Miri wound care

Here she is twelve days after the burn.
Looking goof, eh?

It's not an April fools joke

Look how well Miriam's doing!
The shine is due to the neosporin . . . the skin is tight . . . but not that naturally shiny.

 

One week plus one day

As you can see, Miriam is much better.
I was confused, the plastic surgeon is NEXT Friday.
Hopefully we'll look at her a week from now and go, "Why bother?"

 

Wednesday, Miriam went back to school

I want to thank everyone who has sent good thoughts or prayers our way. We are amazed at Miri's recovery.

Today she went back to school and played with her friends. She seemed happy to be back to the normal routine.

The other nice thing is that her older sister Gwendolyn (6) will look at her again. For a while she said it hurt too much.

Miriam doesn't look as happy in this picture as some of the others, but that's mostly because she has a mouthful of graham cracker.

I want to especially thank the folks over at wincustomize.com. Your concern for me, my family, and my little girl illustrates what we all are, a community. {Even though my wife STILL refers to you all as "those virtual friends"}

We are so very blessed

{Update 2007-May-07 : It's been a year. Read the latest post here}

I am having a hard time denying that my family and I are blessed. I deny a active God on a regular basis; a God who acts in our lives; day to day miracles. I've been wrong before and this might be one of those times.

My youngest daughter was burned last week. She pulled a cup of hot chocolate off the counter and onto her face, chest and arm. Her screaming brought the rest of the family into the kitchen at a run. Michelle pulled her shirt off and Susan and I took turns holding her while the other poured water on her.

Our pediatrician, Hyman Penn, saw us right away and the next day we were seen at Texas Children's Hospital by a plastic surgeon.

He walks in to the room, stops, and says, "Wow." You don't here that much from doctors. You hope you never will again.

They say that Miri probably won't have scars. We need to keep her out of the sun. We need to bathe her twice a day. Keep the neosporin on. We go back next Friday to TCH to see what's changed.

The amazing thing is that Miriam has been happy. She's been playing and dancing and singing and being herself [which means she is still an imp and screams when she doesn't get her way].

She hasn't complained or cried as we've cleaned her wounds. She hasn't gotten bored or frustrated. If you ask her she'll tell you her face is messy.

The other thing is she is healing so quickly. Every day she's better. Susan says it's because of all the prayers that have been offered.

I find it hard to deny that there may be something to it. So I pray a little. And I hope God's there. And I find it a little easier to believe that he is.



The day after the burn:


Two days after the burn [Friday], dressed as a Princess :


Day three [Saturday], wearing her favorite "ballerina" slip:


Day four [Sunday](with a new stuffed puppy from the Silvers next door):


Monday, before her morning bath:


Tuesday (with her "Peeps" ballon:

A failing experiment: the Klenke Wiki

I long while back I thought about a way to capture the stories that make up a family. I knew that I didn't know most of them though and knew that I didn't have the time to invest tracking them down and documenting them.

I looked for a web-based system that the whole family could use to add, or edit whatever they wanted.

I ended up creating a WIKI at http://klenkefamily.pbwiki.coim

The system is easy, trackable, kinda fun.

I get piles of traffic from there to here but the family didn't get into it. Zero interest.

There is so much I don't know about my family; so much I've forgotten or remember wrongly. It looks like I'll pass the same legacy on to my kids.

Morning Glory Muffins

My sister needed a cupcake-like recipe for my nephew Thad to take to school. So she came to us, because we have the best food ever!!

These muffins are so good that kidlets will never know they are good for them.

Morning Glory Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
3/4c. oil
3 eggs
1 large carrot (grated)
1 zucchini (grated)
1 c. coconut
1/4 c. golden raisins
1(8 1/2 oz.) can crushed pineapple (drained, reserve juice)

Sift together first four ingredients and set aside. In separate bowl, mix sugar, vanilla, oil, and eggs, stirring wall. Add dry ingredients to Liquid mixture, mixing quickly. Fold in veggies and fruits. If batter is too dry add a small amount of reserved juice. Grease muffin tins, spray with Pam, or use paper liners, and fill 3/4 full.

Bake at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until golden brown

Lucy . . . I'm home!

Every day when I come home from work I enter the house and yell "Lucy, I'm home!" in my best Ricky Ricardo voice. I don't remember why or when it started. It's just one of those things. [And don't get me started on why his full name was Ricardo Ricardo.]

In any case, the two little kids have started to do it. At least they have a reason; "Dad does it."

I asked Gwendolyn the other day if she knew who Lucy was. No idea at all. It looks like I have to teach Gwen some culture.

It's Cookie pus!

Susan is from New York and I'm always hearing about these ice cream cakes from Carvel.

I hope their cakes are better than their commercials.

It's a small, small world

Drunkenbatman of DrunkenBlog and I go back more years that it seems like [or maybe it seems like less years than it is]. He's family now; whether he want to be or not.

Apparently he had a link in his IM away message to the latest video of Miriam singing and dancing.

It was picked up by a seemingly nice lady named Emily who met DB at his Evening at the Adler indie Mac developer conference thing. She's the editor at MacZealots.com.

So I pop over to her personal blog (wondering where the new traffic is coming from) and run into a port of Lemonade Stand for OSX. That spawns an email to my dad who introduced me to computers with an Apple ][ thanking him for being pretty cool back in '77 or '78.

This Emily is calling Miriam cute. She's winning points with me. Little does she know that there are days I curse EBay's policy about not selling people.

In the end, I have a new feed to Emily. We'll see where that takes me.

Small world after all.

A Serendipitous Intention » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup

There's a manic rendition of Ten little monkeys available here if you haven't had enough Miriam Dance.

I had a dream the other night that she was doing THE baby dance. Susan says I'm not allowed to teach her though. She says it's too odd; even for me.

It's a Baby Bumble-Bee

Miriam, the dancer, again.
She says she learned the song at her school . . . and I have to get her out of there!

She's been watching her sister dance for years. I guess this is the pay-off.



You can see more Klenke videos at Google Video

Got website frustration? Let it out!

www.netdisaster.com lets you destroy websites in new and creative ways. I've targeted www.drunkenbatman.com with a scribling baby in the screencap because it amuses me to think of DB with kids.

Galactic Civilization 2 release date

I almost never play computer games. I love playing them but there is always something better to do. Chores, job, kids, wife. Ya know. But I really do like losing myself for a while.

There's a new game coming out at the end of February called Galactic Civilization 2. It's made by a company called Stardock. They are mostly known for thier Windows eye-candy apps but they also make a kick-ass productivity suite (including Multiplicity) and some great games. {If you like politics, take a look at The Political Machine, it's a fun simulation}

The player takes on the role of the leader of a space-faring
civilization and must guide its expansion in a hostile galaxy.
Gamers must balance their economic, technological, diplomatic,
cultural, and military power to forge alliances, fight wars, and ultimately dominate the galaxy.

The game is single-player and allows the player to play randomly generated galactic maps or play through a multi-mission campaign that tells the story of an ancient enemy called the Dread Lords.

I enjoyed playing the first GalCiv and I've been part of the beta for this one. The graphics are great. The stories are fun. I can't wait.



You can see it full screen on google.

Juggling fire (poorly)

Last Friday we had a birthday party for Gwendolyn.

Susan asked me to juggle my torches and how could I say no. I had juggled them at many of my sister Michelle's parties and this time I was going to be sober.

It was more dark that I would have liked and I hadn't juggled the torches in over a year but the kids had a good time.

I gave a bunch of them water pitols to "put me out" if I caught fire. They were configured not to shoot straight so that they would shoot each other if they tries to shoot me. There was significant pandemonium.



You can see it full screen on google.

Gwendolyn starts preparing for soccer - Miriam digs in the dirt

The spring season is right around the corner. Gwendolyn and I have been working on passing, dribbling, and kicking with the inside of the foot.

She's a dancing queen

Miriam is my active child. She had been dancign for about two minutes before I whipped out the camera and after she recovered from the fall, she was right back up.

I tried to get her to go the other way thinking she might wind down instead of up but I had no luck.

For the record . . the song is Ten Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed

Playing a game . . . or going to bed

I'll admit that there have been a few times when I've gotten wrapped up in a computer game and forgotten to go to bed. I've set timers and even scheduled the PC to turn off. Things happen. I like losing my self once in a while in a make-believe world.

The thing is, I always feel bad when I climb into bed and my wife is all curled up in a ball because I wasn't there to keep hejr warm.

I've never been as bad as these guys though. Very funny.

The Mutha of all gangstas . . shut yo' mouth!

I guess it runs in the family.

In a previous post I documented some of the other gang members that abide in Kingwood. I thought they were anomolies in this part of town.

Apparently I was wrong; gang membership may be bred, not learned.

Below are my wife and daughter thowing signs

 

Delicous DrunkenBatman at MacWorld

I am so wicked jealous.

DB sucks. :-)

Tommy the Cat by Primus

It had to be back in 1989 or '90 when I first heard of Primus. They were so very odd. And this song seems representitive.

Cat Herding

I think that this commercial illustrates what I do at work and what Susan does at the house. Except for her, the thrill of bringing in the herd is years away.

A Miriam photoshoot

It will be good to remember her cute [when she's being "impish"]


I see her in me . . . or is it me in her?


You would think she was able to listen . . but ask her to pick up her toys . . .. not so much


So very sweet.


And time ot have her sister Michelle, repaint her nails.

My Political standing (according to OK Cupid survey)

It seems like I haven't posted in forever. Life has been busy and blogging is never my first priority.

I'm easing into this then with who I am politically (based on 20 questions) from a site I barely know. It seemed to put me about where I thought I was though . . . so there you go.

You are a Social Moderate (55% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (71% permissive) You are best described as a: Capitalist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test