Wait, I Have a Blog? And it's "Both Educative and Entertaining"?

This year, the wife and I celebrated Valentine's Day in the traditional way, which involved making chocolate fondue and reminiscing with our almost-officially-adult sons about their childhood.

She read stories from a book I had made from her blog, "Thomas the Tank Engine Ate My Children," which dates back to the days when gay marriage was legal in two whole states (amazing!) and TiVos were Emmy-winning tech (take that, VCRs!)

We were pulled back to a time when the boys loved trains, fighting sleep, reading books and playing with their new puppy, now a dignified canine elder who sleeps 22 hours a day.

And after a magical couple of hours, Chas took the book (179 pages!) and went to read more of it. And then came the text: He'd found my blog, which Cheryl's book mentioned and which I could not for the life of me remember writing.

Yet there it was, posts about leaving journalism for Amazon, nerdy pop culture and the best boys and wife ever.

And, wait -- more than 2,000 comments? Yes, and other than the most recent three (from Chas) all were spam. Some pitched generic Valium or Tramadol or Diazapam or Adderall or Tramadol for dogs. Some were in French, which spiced up the links to what I'm guessing are not sites that feature romantic love. Some offered designer handbags and others offered investment opportunities.

Sprinkled in the literal nonsense ("your customers' action as oft as you enchant at domiciliate") were oddly compelling phrases, such as: "I'd like to see a person to realize underneath all anger lies either hurt, fear, or frustration."

There were even a few affirmations: "Hi I am so delighted I found your blog, I really found you by accident, while I was researching on Aol for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a remarkable post and a all round exciting blog."

You're welcome. I just got back from checking out Aol (yikes) and maybe that comment is for reals!

Great Wolf: The Rides

So this was the view outside our Great Wolf Lodge hotel room. The cone-looking thing is the Howlin' Tornado, which I was happy to go on once. It was a wild ride, not unlike what I imagine it must be like to get flushed. You must be 48 inches tall to ride, no exceptions, which makes sense. I felt like I was gonna get tossed off the raft. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I didn't once, just to say I did. But I prefer the slides that just go fast, like the big blue tube. That's the River Canyon Run. The whole family (42 inches and up) climbs in what is essentially a round rubber boat. It's speedy, splashy goodness. Another cool thing: The inflatables for both of these rides take their four-story trip to the top of the slide via a mechanical pulley system, rather than on your back (which is how they do it at Wild Waves in Federal Way). There are two other big slides, basically the blue run (faster) and the green run (twistier) of Alberta Falls. Kids over 42 inches can ride these with an adult, which is neat, but honestly, they're a lot more fun solo.

There are two other slides at Totem Towers. They're not huge, but plenty of fun for kids over 42 inches, and adults. They're part of a structure with a giant bucket on the top, which frequently spills a massive splash you need to watch out for. Kids also love the Chinook Cove rec pool, which has basketball hoops, big floating things you can climb on (snake, beaver, acorn), and a lily pad challenge (I couldn't get across but Eddie could). The wave pool is also fun. It has a funny name, but I don't remember it. Basically, we climbed into these clear plastic single and double inner tubes and rode the waves. An aside: Can I just say that these clear plastic tubes are not super flattering? As if my hips and thighs need to be compressed and magnified for all to see. But I digress. There is also a really nice kiddie area, for the under-48-inch crowd. Our boys enjoyed the slides, little though they were, splashed around with the water sprayers and water dumpers. They also put on their goggles and explored the foot-deep waters.

All in all, I think Great Wolf, with all its newness and Disney-eque cleaning philosophy, spoiled me on Wild Waves, which is older, grimier and not as aggressively kept up.

OMG! Tina Fey Just Described My Relationship Perfectly

OK, so my better half and I were just watching "30 Rock," and Tina Fey, speaking through her character, Liz Lemon, said the following:

"I wish I could start a relationship about 12 years in, when you really don't have to try anymore, when you can just sit around together and goof on TV shows and go to bed without anybody trying any funny business."

And Cheryl and I just looked at each other like we caught someone reading our mail. The truth is, we do try. But there is a lot of goofing on TV shows. And I can't say anything about funny business or she'll kick me, but come on -- we're busy parents. Not exactly the prime "getting some" demo. Or are we the only ones?

Great Wolf: Our Review

So we just got back from Great Wolf Lodge. Bottom line, we loved it and we're planning on going back, probably sometime in early/mid-February. Familiar with GWL? In a nutshell, it's an indoor water-park destination in Grand Mound, WA (insert joke here -- then look at a map and see at it's about 20 minutes south of Olympia). Great Wolf has an impressive array of wet rides, shops, food (buffets as well as quick-serve fare like Pizza Hut pizza) and a bunch of dry activities ranging from arts and crafts to video games. If you've been on a cruise, it feels similar. (We love cruises, just so you know our frame of reference.) Our family is two moms and two 5-year-old boys who are taller than 42 inches and shorter than 48 (more on why that matters below).

Here's some of what we learned, loved and might do differently next time:

How 'bout those wristband/roomkey/chargecards? I love technology. The wristbands in the picture were all we needed to play, eat, get souvenirs and come and go from our rooms. So nice not to worry about losing our room key, credit cards, whatever. I wonder how many cruise ships are doing this? They all should ...

There's a Starbucks. I don't drink coffee, so I don't care, but I know Cheryl found it a welcome sight. In other beverage news, it's a Pepsi place (I'm a Coke products person), but it doesn't really matter as you can bring your own pop and keep it in the fridge in your room.

Themed rooms weren't necessarily worth it for us, but may be for you. So, they've got rooms come with either "kid camp" or "wolf den" setups, which are basically bunk bed alcoves that have themed decor. These look cool. The kids did like them/fear them a little (hey, wolves can be scary). But they weren't worth the extra $50 or whatever a night, at least not for us.

Go at non-peak times!!!!! I can't emphasize this one enough. We were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of our kids' weird half-time/full-day kindergarden setup, which gives every other Friday off. We stayed on a Thursday night, and experienced lines essentially never. We heard tell of lines up to an hour long to ride the slides, and that would have dramatically diminished our experience.

If your kid's not 48 inches tall, it helps if he or she is at least 42 inches tall. There's only one slide the under-48-inch crowd can't go on. If you're under 42, you're pretty much limited to the wave pool and the kiddie area, which is great, but, you know, a kiddie area.

The MagiQuest is worth the money. You'll see lots of people waving wands around and activating talking raccoons and mouthy treasure chests and such. This is MagiQuest. It costs $14.99 to get the wand, which uses infrared beams to work its "magic." The wands are re-usable. Once you have a wand, you need to pay $9.99 to activate it. This lasts four days, but two days can feel like forever when you're a 40-something mom trudging around behind a 5-year-old who keeps saying "I don't want to see the dragon!!!" Even though our guys got a little scared of the whole questing business after a while (especially when we kept getting chided by the Pixie Crystal for failing to accumulate the right stuff), they did enjoy it enough for us to feel like we didn't waste our $. And I can see how they'll enjoy it more when they're not so unnerved by seemingly inanimate objects that light up and start babbling about how they need to do this or that. It's a must for Harry Potter fans, I would think.

Is it expensive? Well, that depends on your perspective. My family probably couldn't have afforded it when I was a kid. But now we're lucky enough to be able to spend $219 a night (special off-day rate), plus a bunch of extra stuff, without too much trouble. We stayed one night and two days, and that was plenty of time for us to feel like we really got away. Also, we ate on site but you don't have to. There are restaurants nearby and you can bring your own food. The buffet dinner was $55 for two adults and two kids and worth it, in my book, with peel 'n' eat shrimp, rock crab and dungeness crab, mussels, clams, clam chowder and a bunch of stuff that wasn't seafood (prime rib, kalua pork, Asian food, lots of kid-friendly fare like pizza and mac 'n' cheese and desserts including the ever-popular worms in dirt, etc.)

Get a Paws Pass, especially if you're a first-timer. So we debated whether or not to spend the $79 per kid for these. But we ended up feeling like it saved us a few bucks and enhanced our experience. We got a wand and game ($25), a pair of custom Crocs + a Jibbitz decoration ($35), a color-your-own T-shirt ($10, I think), a fun shaker drink -- milk or lemonade + syrup ($4), a souvenir soda cup, which the moms took for themselves ($7), a stuffed animal that they stuffed on the spot ($20) and admission to the teen-oriented gr8-space, which we shared with a couple of nice teens we met in the water park ($5). I think that's it. And don't think for a second that I don't think we're ridiculously blessed to be able to afford this kind of thing.

More on the rides coming soon ...

My boys' first Star Wars is Clone Wars

I'm not sure how I feel about Clone Wars yet, but I'm glad that my boys have a Star Wars they can watch without panicking (like they did when my resolve melted and I put Episode IV in the DVD player the other night). Seriously, we only got as far as the text crawl and Chas was off and running. Eddie made it to the opening space battle, but he nearly shaking at the thought of seeing Darth Vader. The original Star Wars is a lot to take, I guess.

Anyway, tonight we watched a little bit of the Clone Wars movie, which just became available at Amazon Video On Demand. It makes Eddie nervous ... he wants assurances that everyone will be OK. Chas likes it, and has taken to swinging his pretend lightsaber (he's got "real" toy ones, but they're in the other room). I just find myself trying to remember who the good guys and bad guys are and how they relate to the good and bad guys of the movies I know and love. There is the emperor, who I know is bad. And Obi-wan, who I know is good. But clone troopers? Whatever became of them? Did they become stormtroopers? What of the separatists? Oh, so complicated. And I wouldn't care except that my boys are VERY interested in who's good and who's bad. I tihnk they're really going to flip when they learn the secret of Darth Vader's true identity. Of course, right now they keep thinking the Anakin Skywalker of the Clone Wars is Luke Skywalker. Sigh.

Finally planning that Great Wolf Lodge trip ...

OK, so it looks like we're finally getting ready to take a trip to Great Wolf Lodge, that indoor waterpark the boys have been raving about since preschool (their little friends went, ya see). Anyway, now that the weather has taken a turn for the crappy, we're getting ready to "take the plunge." Ha. Ha.

Anyway, here's one take on a Great Wolf Lodge. It's not the exact same one as the one close to us (in Grand Mound, south of Olympa), but you get the idea: "Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) is a "first-class, full-service, year-round family destination resort" and touts a vacation there as a "land-cruise." You do not have to leave the facility if you do not want to. The resort offers lodging, a waterpark, restaurants, extra entertainment and other great perks. "

Our debate is one night or two (which translates to two days or three). Basically, a $300+ vacation, or a $500+ vacation. Leaning toward one, but we'll see.

Now THAT'S a cupcake

The boys are suspicious of me because I am not much of a dessert person. But as you can see from Chas' creation, they set the bar high.

The "Hip" Faces of Intolerance

I don't have the heart to watch the anti-gay marriage videos created to rock the vote in California. But I did enjoy Radar Online's descriptions:

"Adam" who is a law student at UCLA, allegedly: "The change of the legal
definition of marriage could narrow personal liberties—and some of them are even
lost!" Somehow he thinks photographers will be forced to photograph gay weddings
and that doctors will be forced to do artificial insemination of lesbians.
That's weird, because in America private business owners have the right to turn
down any work they want, Adam, which probably they taught you in your first year
at law school?
"Alissa": "It's really about gaining control, forcing all of
us to give up the very foundation of speech and religious freedoms on which this
country was founded." This is so fundamentally retarded that it's unclear what
she's saying. Gay marriage impedes freedom of speech? Neither does it impinge on
religious freedom. Your church is completely free not to marry gay people—just
as it's completely free to not ordain women priests!

I used to think it was OK to give on gay marriage, that it wasn't worth making people uncomfortable. I'm over that. My family has just as much right to exist as any other, with the same benefits -- and responsibilities. The funny/sad thing is that many people I know and love don't even realize how precarious our existence is -- that just a handful of states even allow people like me to adopt kids, and that a number of states still deny people like me the right to be with our family in hospitals, etc. We know people who

Come on Californians -- do the right thing!

My wife rocks the children's sermon

Yes, that's my Cheryl keeping the kids and our pastor rapt this morning with her wise words about paper, money, and what is truly priceless. You know, people. It was a Reid-Simons dominated service, with the boys serving as acolytes and me as lay leader, complete with musings on faces vs. Facebook and a prayer style best characterized as conversational. Hey, I'm how God made me.

Help! We're lost in a corn maze!

First, it was fun. Now our feet hurt.

Star Wars: My Resolve to Wait Is Weakening

OK, just to be clear, I'm not talking about myself here. I've resolved that my boys should wait until they are 7 to see "Star Wars." That's the plan. Then they'll see "Empire," "Jedi" and the crappy ones in order, once a year, after that. And though I sounded real certain when I talked it out with Ron Moore (yeah, namedropping, don't hate), I just don't think I can hold out that long.

Tonight, Eddie showed me a poster from their Lego magazine that they've hung on their door. It's of a scene from "The Clone Wars," the cartoon movie that came out over the summer. "It looks like a good movie," Eddie says with certainty. He went on to describe the battle scene, and asked why the Jedis were fighting a guy with two light sabers. They already know who Obi-wan Kenobi is, and they know he was a mighty fighter. What will they think when Luke Skywalker goes looking for "Old Ben?" Oh, God -- what will they think when they realize that Luke has the last name as the big hero du jour, that Anakin guy???? They already worry that Anakin isn't a good guy. I have dodged answering that.

As Cheryl says, "We cannot put them in a time machine and take them back to 1977." And we cannot keep them free of the pervasive Star Wars culture. If the knock on Clone Wars is that its a kiddie thing, maybe we should just watch it this fall.

Thanks, Wanda: That's So Gay Has Gotta Go!

I wince a little every time I hear someone say "that's so gay." And I've gently tried to educate people I know about how it makes me feel when they use a word that describes me to describe something they find distasteful. It seems like it works, at least when they're around me.

Anyway, I was heartened to hear that I'm not the only one on the case. Wanda Sykes and Hilary Duff are on the case with a new round of PSAs. Sykes' character recently married -- OK, fake-married -- a woman on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and it's not easy to pull off the fake gay marriage thing without seeming like a jerk. But she did it. Anyway, here's the preview. And if you say "that's so gay," listen to Wanda. Knock it off.

A new use for the 'burbs

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/04/vehicle-to-grid-will-turn-suburbs-into-power-plants-wont-help/

OK, so as some one who worries about the future of the world as well as my world in a petroleum-starved future, stories like this, about the energy-charging potential of the non-urban world. I agree about the hinky neighbors concern, thought most of mine are great, which gives me hope.

A small wind problem at the Fife Harvest Fest

So to call it a blustery day might be an understatement. But it was still a fun day. We played games, saw the Reptile Man and his scaly friends and got free crap.

Are You Kidding Me, Sound Transit?

Web-connected buses are great. They are a big part of why I ride Sound Transit instead of Metro. But today, as I stand with 40 other people on a bus packed to the gills (75-plus in a single-length conveyance, I think I may re-embrace Metro, web or no. There is still plenty of work I can do off-line.

We picked apples!

So we got up before 8(!) for soccer pix, then a game against their stiffest competition yet (we weren't keeping score, but we won!) then a break, then off to the kid-friendly orchards of Gwendon Farms in Puyallup. Where kids pick apples, carrots and more. Or, as Eddie fabulistically put it, kids pick from the garden, then have to pick apples for five hours.

Condi Out as VP 'Cause of the Gay Thing? Really?

OK, so in the course of looking at stories about Clay Aiken -- Gay? Really? (Claymates in denial) -- I came across this interesting thing on Condi Rice and how she got eliminated from John McCain's ticket because she is supposedly (apparently?) gay. I had no idea.

According to a prominent member of the Republican National Committee privy to the search process, many in McCain’s inner circle argued furiously for the selection of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice over the other top contenders, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty.“Once Obama selected Biden instead of Hillary,” said the source, ” they had this theory that Condi was the perfect candidate to put up against him. She’s tough, conservative and a hawk, not to mention a football fanatic, which would be more than enough for white men. ... So what went wrong? “It was the persistent rumors about her sexuality that ultimately killed her chances and removed her from the list,” says the mid-level RNC official. ... According to her biographer, Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, the never married Rice shares ownership of a house as well as a line of credit with a female documentary filmmaker, a liberal Democrat named Randy Bean. Digging through real estate records, Kessler discovered the pair’s co-ownership of a property in Palo Alto, California as well as a joint line of credit with a bank, an arrangement Bean has explained unconvincingly as relating to medical bills that left her financially drained. It’s possible that others previously investigating Rice’s background came across the joint ownership of the investment property and the bank account but assumed the name “Randy” belonged to a man. Rice once told a reporter that Bean is her closest female friend and that they bonded over their mutual love of football.

Family Oversharing (Not Mine, Thankfully)

OK, so I was looking for Maria McKee on Facebook (apparently you can declare yourself as a fan of people and things like -- plug alert -- Amazon Video On Demand), and found a couple groups, and a link to this story: "Bryan Maclean: Love before, after and beyond." It was on the well-known publication Canadian Christianity Today, and had a fair amount of stuff about Maria (Brian's half-sister). Maclean, who died a few years ago, was known for writing great songs and being a part of the acclaimed '60s band Love with Arthur Lee. McKee was lead singer of beloved "cowpunk" band Lone Justice and a solo artist. I'm a fan, as her music is the kind of poppy and grandiose stuff I love.

The article is long, a bit rambling, and very much one-source. And while I was interested to learn that Maria is bi-polar and spent three months in bed staring at the TV and then the wall before her wonderful husband got her help, I felt like a voyeur -- much more voyeuristic than when I peek at the supermarket tabs. This was too real to enjoy as "Hollywood crap." For example:

Elizabeth admits it’s only in the last decade that she has started to come to terms with some of her more questionable parenting decisions. As an example, she brings up Bryan’s childhood weight issues; “I think a lot of kids eat because they’re starved for that thing that they need; their parents. And I was so scared of [second husband] Jack, that I had to stand with him against Bryan. It was the worst thing. That was the sadness of my life, to have to gang up on him.”

It was the opposite scenario with Maria. “I was in such La La Land. I thought; ‘Oh, the Lord gave me my little girl! I always wanted a little girl; I’m going to be the perfect mother of a perfect child.’ And then I just loved her. I took her everywhere, because Jack was never home, and she had no daddy, so I tried to be everything to her, and do everything. And a lot of it was good, but a lot of it was bad, because I was in another world. She was my life – I made her my life.”

“I think it’s been in the last few years, since Bryan died, that I’ve been able to be honest with myself, and who knows, maybe that whole attitude that I had towards her, of making her my little Princess and all that, is what screwed her up.”

Wow. Wonder what my mom would have said about me if CanadianChristianity.com
called her.

Exploring Union Station

I walk through Union Station pretty much every workday morning. I love the '30s vibe, the huge, arched ceiling, the tilework, and I love to think of the people who have come through there over the years, the hopes they had in their travels. Today, for fun, I went beyond the main lobby/passthrough area in to the bathroom, which is huge and bright and really more of a lounge. So civilized!

At Last, Facebook (step by step)

OK, so I'm finally signing up for Facebook. I kind of have to, because there's now a Facebook page for my work, and I need to be a Facebook member to be able to fully access it as an admin/update it/whatever.

I had said that I was a "conscientious objector" to FB, which would actually require putting waaaaay more effort into it than I'm willing to. What I really have been is guilty of ignoring my blog, and more importantly, my friends. FB just seems like another way to do that, and I certainly don't need the help.


But Cheryl's on it, and she seems to dig it. So I'll give it a chance. OK, weird thing: I'm signing in now, for the first time, and I'm still on, like, step 1, and I already have an invite to be a friend with Jim Drinkwine, a dude I kind of remember from college. Wow. I have actual friends on FB, and this guy is the first I hear from? Hmmmmm. Oh God. It's with some trepidation that I allow FB to "find friends" in my Outlook. This ought to be interesting.

Next up: Selecting a Facebook photo.