Spring Cometh 5

Spring Cometh 5

May 10 - All leaves are now out, growing fast.

Spring Cometh 6

Spring Cometh 6

May 17 - Spring is all the way here. Very green everywhere. Pollen causing hayfever. Ahhh - the joy of Spring.

Ariel's growing up

Ariel's growing up

She has grown physically (currently 5'3") and also socially. The local Church has a piety stall staffed by various volunteers. Ariel expressed interest in assisting and on the Saturday night prior to the first Communion Mass helped many customers in their selections. That night, the lady minding the shop called the lady in charge and asked if Ariel could help her every time she was rostered on, letting one and all know the great help Ariel was.

Narnia is coming ...

The new Narnia Movie is getting closer. The signs, so far, are good that this may be true to the novels and be in the tradition of the Lord of the Rings movies, too. Considering that Weta Workshop, the guys who created the costumes and effects for LOTR are involved, the whole thing has that epic feel.
Check out the new preview.

Early Childhood Development

Early Childhood Development

Rose always wants to help Lana in everything she does. As all the other children are learning how to touch type with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, Rose seems to have been paying attention. Note the well placed hands.

Talking in tongues

One of my work colleagues is Russian and he would typically open a conversation with a Russian greeting. Being curious about what he was saying I went to Altavista's Babelfish website and started translating and answering in Russian. We have had a bit of fun trying to talk with literal translations. For example, saying "Cool" as in "Cool man" translated as "it is cold".
So he explained that in Russian you just say куул, and then answer with клево (which means "biting")
Writing it is one thing. Pronouncing is another. So I discovered "Before you know it" which has a free download to learn basic phrases in lots of languages, including Russian for the Mac and Windows.

Calling 007 - Spyware infections

I hate spyware. By going to the wrong site and answering a question wrong your machine is suddenly doing weird things like having odd web pages in your browser, or the machine constantly whirring when you are doing nothing.

You have to be protected when you go surfing the Internet.
1. Firewall - all routers have a firewall, but a software one (such as ZoneAlarm - free) will let you know if programs are trying to get onto the 'net.
2. Anti-virus software - regularly updated with definitions. I use Vet but many of them do a fine job.
3. Just say "No!". If an email has an attachment, check with the sender before opening it. If a web site asks to install software, make sure.
4. Be VERY VERY careful with music download and games sites. Remember the maxim "There is no such thing as a free lunch". Many of these sites are guilty of inflicting spyware and other nasties on unsuspecting users.
5. Anti spyware tools. Every anti spyware program picks up some, but not all spyware infections. I run two: Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. In conjunction they have cleared up any spyware I have. Regularly check your machine and get the latest file definitions.

OR

You could get a Macintosh.

Camping isn't so hard

James camping hard

Yesterday we attended an end of season Soccer camping thing organised by Eric's Coach. It was at their holiday property in Coopers Creek. They created this little holiday spot from a pretty rundown and unused bit of land with some other family members and together they have created a little holiday cabin, a bathroom and shower, there is a cleaned up pond, and volley ball area and room for some camping. Some of the families camped but we only went for the day.
We are very glad we didn't actually "camp" overnight. It rained almost non stop and was quite heavy all last night.

Last CCD class 2005

Last CCD class 2005

This Sunday was the last class of the Sunday School/CCD/School of Religion year. Most Sundays children attend classes to learn more about the faith. I taught year 6 students this year and covered Salvation history, the underlying theme of God's love for us through the Old Testament culminating in the coming, death and resurrection of Jesus. By the year's end, the children all had a good grasp of the ten commandments, the seven sacraments and lots of big words and concepts like concupiscence, consecration, transubstantiation, and rational souls.
This was a very enjoyable year sharing our Faith.

Rose enjoying camping

Rose enjoying camping
Offsetting the pretty red dress and bonnet, Rose is following family tradition sucking rocks, sand and dirt.

Eric concentrating on the game

Eric concentrating on the game

Eric attended a course to be a level 9 (Junior domestic) Soccer referee. He has a refereed a couple of under 6 games by himself, but for under 8, 10 and 12 games he has been assistant referee. He takes the responsibility seriously, as you can see here at an under 10 game. His job as assistant referee is to watch for offside violations, calling side balls, goal kicks and corner kicks as well as general assistance to the centre referee.

A Knight and his apprentice

A Knight and his apprentice

Rose gets involved in everything, including the children's games. We purchased these costumes at the post Halloween sales. Do you think Rose will make a good apprentice? James thinks that although Rose looks cute, she's not very good at following orders.

How to have a dry baby...

Rose started walking early March when she was nine months old. No longer kept at ground level she is getting into higher things. Whilst Lana was using the washing machine, Rose decided to assist with the dryer. Naturally, the first step is to get in the dryer.

One step for a baby ...

May John Paul II Rest in Peace

This is the picture from an article in our local paper. It was taken at the Mass held for the repose of the soul of the Pope, John Paul II. The interesting thing is that although this area is only 1% Catholic, Catholics are involved in so many public service areas, they are very well respected.

Local Funeral Mass for John Paul II

Dust and computers - enemies forever

No matter how much we try to avoid dust and minimise it's effect on the computers it still gets in. Recently my CD/CDRW stopped working for whatever reason. (These things just happen you know). The cheapest solution was to buy a new one at Walmart and replace the bad one. When I opened the case I was surprised at the dust. I regularly use compressed air to blow dust away, but the continuous use of the computer and the fan sucking in dust filled air does the deed.
I then had Lana hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle near the dusty areas whilst I used the compressed air to blow it away and a paint brush to brush the more resistant bits. It was finally clean.
Why is dust bad? It inhibits the air flow within the PC and can cause heat buildup. Heat causes expansion which means finely tuned opathways can expand into one another causing all sorts of weird and wonderful errors - even corruptions.

Unto dust you shall return ...

Soccer for young and old

All three boys have been playing soccer this season. To avoid timetabling hassles, Peter and James were with the same coach (seen in the photo below behind Peter) and Eric was in the coach's daughter's team. It worked out evry well. All the boys did well and enjoyed their season. This is a recreational league with no finals or ladder.
Typically sports in the US tend to be school based. As each county pays for the schools in the area, the county facilities tend to be associated with the schools. So it can get tricky for those not in the public school system to be involved in many sports. This league was started a number of years ago by some homeschooling families who negotiated for use of spare land next to a local bottling factory. Each season the competition grows with more players and teams.

Peter enjoying his soccer

Eric as Lord Faramir

Eric as Lord Faramir

The boys have taken up "Lord of the Rings Battle Gaming". As many of you know, I did a lot of wargaming before he moved to Sydney in 1993, but since then I have been waiting for the boys to get old enough to provide some competition. Initially, with the Lord of the Rings figures, they were just moving figures around and using their imagination. Then an invitation arrived in the mail to go to Gamesday 05 in Atlanta organized by Games Workshop. We arranged to spend the day at the convention center downtown in Atlanta - 2.5 hours away. Eric had a very good day. Rather than try out the various other games and activities on offer, he joined in to the many Lord of the Rings demonstration games. The first was a very large game being in command of Men of Gondor against nasty orcses (pictured here). The next game was controlling some orcs in Osgiliath, trying to cross the river and move through. I controlled some of the Gondorian defenders and I won that battle. Eric's last game was as the good guys again with some other homeschooling children controlling the evil forces. By the time they finished, Eric had played many hours gaming, and was filled with new knowledge of the game rules and mechanics. He has since shown James and Peter how to play.

The game also involves painting the models, creating scenery and designing games. We went to Home Depot and haggled for a damaged LARGE sheet of pink insulation foam ($4.00). This is the basis for castle walls, hills and other large structures. The boys are doing a great job creating lots of scenery, with David providing assistance and advice.

More friends named Smith.

At church Rose has made many friends. Through her smiles and personality we now have many special grandparents. One of our special friends is Edith Smith who turned 88 recently and we were honored to be invited to her surprise birthday party. Unbeknownst to Mrs Smith, her family gathered from across the country, some she had not seen for up to sixteen years.
As each person arrived, they were given a helium filled balloon, and they popped in to see Mrs Smith one at a time. As each one entered the room, Mrs Smith was stunned.
By the time all had arrived the ceiling was full of balloons with a blissfully happy Mrs Smith below in her chair.
After meals and many discussions, the children went outside with the balloons and the balloons set free.

Let the balloons soar!

It was a great feeling to be involved in such a family affair. Pleasant memories of family affairs back home reminded us of the importance of family.

Cleaning up can be bad

I have a number of disk utilities to help keep Windows trim. Bits and pieces are left all over the place from programs being added and removed and data in and out, so I ran the disk cleanup part of the program and it went and did it's thing. Normally I always run the program with the various prompts so I can see what it was doing. This time I didn't. And it went and cleared out all temp files. Including the one in My Pictures which I named temp for photos I had not organised yet.

I only discovered after I had already replaced my nightly backup, and I ran a disk defragmentation which resorts files on the disk into a more efficient positions. The end result? I lost tons of photos from November to February. The photos prior to that I had copied to my laptop to show to family back home on my Novemeber trip.

The lessons?
1. Don't name folders temp unless they really are temporary and can be deleted.
2. Don't take the default option of any program unless you are really sure!

The Christmas Beard Poll - Results

We had quite a few emails and replies to our beard poll. Surprisingly, the overwhelming response was to keep it. Interesting comments included:
"You look like Michael Moore! So either the beard goes or you get a baseball cap." (Against - Aust)
"It looks very distinguished" (For - Local)
"Kinda gives you that distinquished look" (For - Local)
"It is Christmas time and it resembles Santa, It does make you look older but in a good way (not too much older)" (For - Aust)
"Makes you look too old" (Against - Aust - David's Dad)
"When in Rome ..." (For - Aust)

But the casting vote really went to Lana. Too scratchy when hugging. So off it went!