Double-Down on TKD

I took Shane to TKD twice this week since we skipped last week. I didn't feel bad about overloading his nights either, because his baseball game was rained out Tuesday night. I had to pick him up from afterschool early both Monday and Wednesday to make the class time for his age group (4:40 - 5:30 PM). 

Shane asks to go back to the younger class sometimes. I like him being with the older kids more, even if I don't find the class time as convenient.

Shane's skip sidekick is eluding him. He's maintained progress more than leaped ahead. We don't really practice at home since we're on activity overload this spring.

Shane was happy I signed him up for a week of TKD summer camp. He needs to go regardless of liking it or not when my workdays hit. He recognizes kids from the older class and the younger class now, so he'll have more friends when it's time for summer camp.

Car Annoyances

Readers with a keen memory may recall my Volvo's recent leaking issue. It has morphed.

There was a large downpour one night. Instead of leaking from above, the leak seems to be coming from somewhere lower down. Everything in the passenger side foot-well was soaked (Including a board game that had slipped! The box absorbed the damage and the insert protected the cards at least).

I wasn't sure where the leak was coming from. I've suspected a leak in the windshield based on the last leak and a faint, high-pitched sound that can be heard if focused on. The shop cleaned out the sunroof drains which seemed to fix the leak.

A week later, there was a lighter rain storm. I checked again and noticed moisture coming from down the side between the dashboard and frame. I could feel more moisture when I stuck my fingers up into the area.

I needed to take care of the state safety inspection anyway, so Carrie arranged an appointment. I dropped my car off and took a loaner to work.

The Volvo failed inspection due to the tires and front brake pads. All four tires are at the end of their life. That was expected. Carrie knows places we can get a much better price at, so I told the shop to hold on replacing them. The brake pads seemed a little early, but I okayed those to be replaced. I wasn't as happy that they shop cleaned out the sunroof drains again and charged for it ($20). I asked about the lining around the windshield and the shop told me that they would have had to pull the windshield and that's not something they'd do.

Fast forward to the future (4/28) and you'll see the problem wasn't fixed. Saturday, when I opened up the car to load it to drive north, I noticed it smelled musty/humid. There had been a light rain overnight. I pulled out the floor mat on the passenger side and it was wet underneath.

I felt around the carpet and, lo and behold, it was damp.

Carrie spotted what looked like a gap in the stripping at the base of the windshield. It became visible when she looked from the porch towards the front of the car. It felt slightly loose to the touch.

I checked the other side of the windshield and there was another gap, but less pronounced. I checked under the floor mat driverside and there was more moisture.

If you follow the windshield line along the black strip above the wipers you may be able to see the driverside gap. I can't unsee it, but I don't know how easy it will be for someone new to see it in these pictures.

Carrie tried a temporary quick-fix with some caulking.

We don't need a new windshield and we don't really want to replace it if we don't have to. Neither of us wants water to continue to seep into the car and possible mess with any of the electrical components either.

The problem will bear more watching. I'm being extra careful not to leave anything in the footwells in the meantime.

Spring Sunday

Sunday, we had a play date with Sam after church. Paul (Sam's dad), Sam, and Toby (Sam's brother) met us at Azalea park. The scooters were popular, Sam destroyed the men's room, and Shane bent Toby's slinky. 

Meanwhile, Paul and I kept popping up and down to marshal the boys and enjoyed some adult conversation in between. I'd brought Ancillary Justice to read if I had spare time and brain power. Paul recognized it as something he'd read. He's an interesting guy and our kids get along, so it makes for a fun outing for everyone.

Toby wandered over to watch a social group's dodgeball game. Sam followed and eventually I forced Shane to head over (He hid under the bleachers at first. I had asked if Shane or Sam could balance on the barrier going around the playground. Shane kept running and fell off. He was frustrated that Sam did better than him and was being stand off-ish).

Shane didn't care about dodgeball. He did care about the hole with ants in it by the dugout.

The boys proceeded to excavate.

Shane would have been happy to tunnel into the dugout.

Nobody minded.

Shane's inner monkey kicked in twenty minutes later!

We said our goodbyes and headed to baseball practice afterward. Shane missed a catch and got to experience a pitch to the chest for the first time. The coaches checked on him and he recovered in a couple minutes without needing me.

Maybe the coach felt bad, because Shane got first crack at batting practice.

The other coaches had the kids practicing fielding and base running.

The dirt calls to Shane. He can't leave it alone.

What there aren't pictures of is Shane's bathroom break. After batting practice, he said he needed to go to the bathroom. However, the bathrooms were locked. I was going to have him pee on a tree, but he said, "It's poop!"

We had to drive to the gas station. Once Shane finished his business I drove him back to practice.

Practice ran for an hour and a half. We were done with our day's activities and home before 5.

I was done, too. It was chores and reading followed by electronics and sleeping.

Sports and Family

Saturday was a beautiful (if cool) day for soccer. The coaches introduced a keep away game for warm ups.

Our team has morphed into "that team that plays well and has extra kids." We had three kids sitting ready to sub in at one point.

The gang all looked ready in this picture.

Squad goals, right?

Shane has decided to he's a defensive man. He likes to hang back and block goals.

He also still likes to get a loooong running start on any goal kicks he performs.

After the game, there were errands. We needed to pick up chicken feed for Carrie's hens. I sent her a picture of some chicks and then hoped she wouldn't reply, "Buy me more!"

Shane watched the chicks while I picked up the feed.

Later, we drove to Short Pump in Richmond to meet Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Chris for dinner at Wegmans. Shane and I played Battle Kittens while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Half of the dinner conversation was business (Carrie + Grandpa + Grandma). The other half was hearing about Chris' travels while deployed and how his family was doing (Or maybe it was 60/40 Business/Chris!).

Shane felt hot and was acting lethargic throughout dinner. I had him play on my phone and he slumped against either me or Carrie. He had a low grade fever when we got home. He went to bed without trouble and slept it off by the next morning, though.

Make-Up Game

Shane's game was rescheduled for Friday. Raheem wanted to go.

"Are you sure? I mean, I care because I'm a dad, but it's 7 year olds playing baseball. It's not that exciting," I said.

Rah really wanted to go.

I had him check with his mom and then told him to hop in. We picked up Shane from after school. 

Shane put his shirt and hat on in the car as we cruised over. We played against the orange team.

Rah wanted to go on the field and help out, but he'd have been a ringer at 10.

I noticed the coach was on his own, so I offered to help out.

I found myself in the outfield for the first inning. Shane was thrilled to be pitcher again.

Rah got my chair.

I transitioned to 'Dugout Dad' next. One kid was twirling in circles trying to read the number off the back of his shirt. He didn't believe me when I told him it was a '9,' so I took a picture.

More help arrived as the game went on. I stayed in the dugout the next time the kids hit the field.

That let me talk to Rah some. He asked me questions about the rules through the fence. He really wanted to come into the dugout, too, but it's supposed to be for the team only. He wanted to climb up the fence, but the last thing the players needed was a new idea about how to goof off in there.

Rah talked and explored around a little whenever it was our turn to bat. I was too busy to talk.

By working the dugout I talked some with the Coach's wife. She'd found Shane's glove after the first practice! It was in her car, but we could grab it on Sunday. Phew! I don't mind helping, but I felt a little harried trying to support the team and keep Rah in mind.

After the game ended, Shane sat down to eat his snack and look down a storm drain. Rah borrowed his glove and wanted to play catch with me. I played for a while (Without my glove, sadly).

We got home around 7:40 PM. Shane had a decent game and Raheem got to do something he normally wouldn't get a chance to. A successful night!

Priorities

The schedule went from packed to open. Sunday, practice was cancelled. Monday, the game was rescheduled. There was a performance Shane could have sang in Wednesday. I signed the permission, but left the choice to him. I asked him Tuesday if he wanted to, and he said, "No."

I got home from work with the intention of taking Shane to Taekwando. I was tired, Carrie wasn't lost in work, and a different thought occurred.

"I need to pick Shane early for TKD.......or we could play Year 7 of Harry Potter," I said.

I had to sprint out the door to pick Shane up on time. Raheem asked to go and I said, "No time!" over my shoulder as I ran past him to the car. 

Shane got to watch us play the last couple of turns when he got home. Voldemort was defeated!

Work Burnout + Busy Life = Blog Backlog

I'm writing this in the future and backdating this to the past.

As I write this, my last blog posts were 4/16 and 4/18. The 4/18 was an easy post, so I typed it out while thinking, "I need to start that longer one..."

The longer one was never started. 

I was already a week behind when I was writing those posts, too (I think). 

It is 4/30 as I write this. I'm almost two weeks behind!

Work is busy. Shane's active. I'm active. Then I'm spending time with Carrie at night to unwind. That hasn't left time for blogging. I'm going to start going through my backlog of pictures and start posting now.

I may have to skip posts on some days, but I'll catch up eventually. It starts now.

Carrie Gets Creative

It's been a creative week for Carrie. She used a hair dryer to melt the solder on the PS3, so that it could cool and reset. This actually fixed the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death). 

She got tired of hunting for our remote and decided to make it more visible.

Now it's glamorous.

Monday, I came home and found our guest bedroom totally redone.

It had been a latex dumping ground and cat hang out. Carrie took all the old foam to the dump and started a rec room conversion.

I asked, "But what about guests!?"

"We still have the aerobed and the spare mattress under Shane's bed we can move in!" Carrie answered.

Carrie had looked for her old PS2 after the PS3 broke down. I didn't realize she ordered a cheap, refurbished PS2 off Amazon when she couldn't find it.

That made me suspicious, but I didn't know quite what was up yet.

Update: Friday, I solved the mystery. A box showed up on the front porch. It was big, but it was light. The company that shipped it had an electronic/video-game themed name.

We had a parlor room scene in our front hallway. "You ordered a DDR mat didn't you?"

Carrie got quiet and looked sheepish. Then she switched to coy and cute. I was right.

"You rearranged the upstairs room, because you wanted to play DDR with Shane. You didn't want to do it downstairs and stomp on the floor over Nova."

I ruined the surprise, but I enjoyed playing detective.

Carrie and I watched a gag anime over the past week called Saiki K. The main character loved something called coffee jelly.

Carrie got interested. I challenged her and she made it.

It worked out, too!