Count me out for Welcomeburger

Column originally published July 29, 2008

Starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday in historic Washington Square, the 46th annual Welcomeburger is, according to the Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry, "where the people of Ottawa meet and greet new and old friends, neighbors and colleagues!"

That is, the friends, neighbors and colleagues who can afford $20 apiece just to get in — and that's the advance price.

I went to Welcomeburger last year, my first summer in Ottawa. The Times bought my ticket, and since I'd never heard of the Welcomeburger concept before coming to La Salle County, it was an easy decision. I had a good time, met a few new people and enjoyed the food. Because my wife had a quilting class to attend in Streator that night, I had to leave early and did not come close to consuming enough food and drink to balance my ticket price.

That may not seem like a big deal, but Holland men take buffets and other all-you-can-eat offers as a personal challenge. Our goal is to leave the restaurant on our own power, gleefully patting our bellies and proclaiming "They didn't make any money on us." I once calculated the per shrimp cost of the all-you-can-eat shrimp offer at Red Lobster versus the 30-shrimp option, figured out how many I'd need to consume to break even, then ate at least 20 more for good measure.

The food, though, isn't what concerns me. Rather, I'm looking at Welcomeburger and seeing what could be an opportunity for newcomers to become connected to a community and realizing the event falls short.

Continue reading "Count me out for Welcomeburger."

Family photos

Sorry it took a full week to get these posted, but here is a shot of Max and Great-Grandma Holland from last week's get-together in Fulton.

From At How's House

And here is a shot of Pops and Max, chilling out in a recliner, watching either the British Open or the Cubs thumping Houston.

From At How's House

Max's new tricks

My little boy is babbling already!!! Or at least he said the syllables "ma ma ma" and "ba ba ba". He thinks he's really hot stuff and now that he has figured that out, uses it constantly. I can't believe he's old enough to be doing that. I still expect the newborn cry sometimes and it shocks me that his cries are becoming much more like whines instead. Of course, top the 4 month old whine with Jack's constant "Mommy, I'm so hungwy" and it can get kind of circus like.

Onto other Max developments, he has now rolled over both ways! Last weekend, he rolled over from tummy to back at my mom's house, this was witnessed by two grandmothers and a great-grandma. I did not see it, nor did Scott. He has not done this again since. This week, I was out at the Y for about an hour and he rolled from back to tummy, witnessed by Scott and Jack. I did not see this either. It has been repeated once, but neither Scott nor I were in the room. But he was left on his back and when Scott went back, he was on his tummy. So, Max can roll over, I'm told, I just have yet to see it. I'm only with him about 22-24 hours a day, so I can see where I'd miss it (did you catch the sarcasm on that one?).

Wildcat-Kohawk connection

Thanks to Google alerts, random surfing and social networks, I'm usually on top of everything Coe- or Libertyville-related. So you can imagine how shocked I was when my own mother scooped me on this one:

Coe Touring Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band to perform in Libertyville concert August 2, then leave for Far East tour

You are invited to a special concert featuring the Coe College Touring Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band in the Chicago area. The concert will be held:

Date: Saturday, August 2
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Libertyville, Illinois, at the "Festival of the Arts." This is an annually held event in downtown Libertyville's Cook Park and hosted by the David Adler Music and Arts Center.

Special guest Dustin Helvie, Libertyville High School associate director of bands and conductor of the Libertyville Municipal Band, will conduct one selection with the Coe band, and join them in the trumpet section.

Trip to Taiwan, China
The Libertyville event is a farewell concert prior to the Coe College Touring Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band trip to Taiwan and China Aug. 3-11. The ensembles consist of Coe students, faculty, alumni and friends, led by Coe Professor of Music and Band Director William Carson and music instructor Steve Shanley. The groups will perform farewell concerts in Cedar Rapids and Libertyville, then give three performances in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Concerts will consist of six pieces by the touring wind ensemble and six pieces by the touring jazz ensemble, including the appropriately titled Sousa march, "Hands Across the Sea." While overseas, the students will also visit many historical and cultural sites.

This is Carson's first time taking the Coe band to perform in China, and he has high hopes the students will gain more than just cultural and musical experiences. "With well over one billion Chinese and a rising economy, the more we know about China, the better," said Carson. "We hope that our visit will help strengthen the bonds of friendship between our nations."

In previous years, Coe band students have been given the opportunity to understand other nation's cultures through band trips to Korea, England and Scotland. Carson looks forward to continuing this tradition during the band visit to the Far East.

Please come to the concert and support the Coe College Bands!

A Coe band concert? In downtown Libertyville? Could I be more excited?

(I could, actually, if the Cubs would win a few games against Florida and Milwaukee, or if Max stopped having random days where he hates the world, or if Jack could cut out at least one tantrum a week, or if... you get my drift)

But still, it's quite the coincidence, isn't it? Especially since we'd already planned a Libertyville trip next weekend?

Iowa life

Ever wanted to live in Clinton? Can you afford to put down $5,000? Have time to clean 26 rooms? Click here and begin the first day of the rest of your life.

Or, if you just want to learn about an exciting mural project at the Independence library, follow this link.

Keep feet grounded while reaching for the stars

Column originally published July 22, 2008

As I write this column, the Cubs have yet to play their first game after the All-Star break. They sit in first place of the National League Central, four games ahead of St. Louis and five ahead of Milwaukee.

The Cubs have had a share of first place since May 11, the day they beat Arizona 6-4 to complete a three-game sweep as part of a 9-2 homestand. They are 37-12 at home, by far the best winning percentage in the National League. Overall they are 57-38, good for a .600 winning percentage matched only by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Calif., United States of America, which may or may not be the team's official name.

The Cubs have scored 106 more runs than their opponents, best in baseball (Boston is second at plus-99; Washington is worst at minus-117). According to ESPN.com, the Cubs' chance of making the playoffs in some capacity are 83.5 percent, again best in the game (Boston is second at 79.9 percent, and a few sorry teams are ranked at 0.1 percent, presumably because the scale does not allow negative numbers).

So why am I nervous?

Reread the first few paragraphs, except every time you see the word Cubs, insert Yankees instead. In that light, everything is coming up roses. If the Yankees were in this seat, fans would be crowing about the teams chances for a 27th World Series title and a chance to send Yankee Stadium out in a blaze of glory.

The truth is the Cubs have the best chance in at least two generations to return to the Fall Classic, and it's more likely the last Series game in the House that Ruth Built will be the 2003 game six that ended with the Florida Marlins celebrating on the infield.

Still, most Cubs fans I know are firmly entrenched in the "cautiously optimistic" camp.

Continue reading "Keep feet grounded while reaching for the stars"

Site News

Boring housekeeping items:

I've tried to remove a few of the dead links on the right-hand rail, but I haven't touched the games yet. I may just delete that whole thing since I never use it. I added it back when I had time for stuff like online arcade games. That seems like forever ago.

Anyhow, if you're someone I know and I should have a link to your site but don't, please clue me in and I'll try to throw one up there. I kind of like being a comprehensive Web resource for people in my large circle.

Also, and perhaps most important, I moved the "family photos" link all the way to the top in the main links list. This allows me to add another reminder than I don't post every photo to the blog that I do to the Picasa albums. Plus, there are some pictures from the family archives, the oldest dating back to the early 1980s. There's 10 albums for your browsing enjoyment.

Thankfully, most of my high school and college years are in that nice period before digital photography took over but also recently enough that people haven't bothered to go back and scan a bunch of old images. Maybe some day...

Weekend in Fulton

From At How's House

We're in Fulton for the weekend. Tonight was Kristie's cousin Andy's wedding reception -- he got married June 20 in Jamaica. The hometown reception was tonight injunction with his dad's family reunion and his brother's (cousin Adam) 30th birthday celebration tomorrow.

From At How's House

Sunday Pops and K are bringing Great-Grandma Holland down from Elizabeth to meet Max (and eat How's cooking, even though we told her not to go overboard making food). I plan to burn up a few more bytes on the memory card for that one as well, so look for pictures sometime in the next few days.

Here's one last picture of Max, taken at the hotel where we went for Andy's reception. They have a nice atrium area that allowed in enough sun for our camera to work without a flash, which let me get Max to smile while Kristie held him. We got so many good pictures I had a hard time picking the one I liked most.

From At How's House

Holland family update

That's my brother, Matt, in his new Chicago apartment, with his new large dog, Blue. And a sock monkey, which looks suspiciously similar to one we found in the basement of our Clinton house the day we moved in.

What were we thinking?

Looking at the calendar in our kitchen this week, I see Thursday was the fourth anniversary for Rick and Stephanie (Velander) Peterson. Turning over the pages in my mind, I recall the wedding pretty well, especially the post-wedding experience of going to downtown Chicago -- with Jack -- for a cruise on the lake and Chicago River.

(If you need a refresher, click this link for a post I wrote upon our return.)

This was one of those big group tours, with a large vessel that can handle about, I don't know, 150 people? Look at the picture, I think that's either the boat we took or one much like it.

Anyway, in addition to remembering how fun that trip was (and how little of the wedding reception we got to witness, missing an apparently classic speech by Mr. Velander, because Jack needed to eat AND throw a monster fit), what really strikes me is the disparity between Jack and Max.

At the time, Jack was not quite four months old. Right now, Max is not quite five months old. And there is no way Kristie and I would ever even remotely consider taking the same trip with Max. We drove out the Friday night before -- and this is when we lived almost three hours away instead of almost two. The wedding I think was around 11 a.m. The reception was around 1 p.m. We boarded a bus at a Vernon Hills hotel where Rick's family and friends from Michigan were staying to take the hour trip south to the city.

Then we milled around sorting out tickets and the line and getting on the boat. This is when we posed for the picture in front of Tribune tower:

From Jack's First Seven Months

Then we did the whole tour, which I think I address in the post I linked to, but suffice it to say the lake was pretty choppy that night, the bugs were a bit of a concern and we ended up being out until the sun was all the way down and didn't get back to Libertyville until pretty darn late. Then we got up and did church the next day.

All in all it went amazingly well. Jack slept through the entire tour. I warmed up a bottle on the boat (somehow I found an outlet) and I'm thinking Jack even slept the whole way back. Either way, he handled it better than Kristie, who got a bit queasy on the open water.

Max simply would not be able to handle this. First of all, he probably wouldn't last through the whole wedding, and he certainly ruin the reception. The bus would be a no-go since he insists on walking around with me or Kristie. The boat would be a nightmare with all the people, although he does like being outside. He wouldn't sleep much at all, and he'd be screaming so much people might consider tossing us overboard.

None of this takes into account the breast pumping that pretty much guides our family schedule these days, which would render the entire thing impossible even if Max had the temperament for the trip.

Contrasting experiences of the past with challenges of the present gives me a real appreciation for the differences between the two kids. Although there are plenty of similarities, there are some wide, wide gaps in how they approach life. And that's good; it helps us bond with each child as an individual.

Look for a similar post in two months, which is Nick and Alexis' fourth anniversary. That involved a six-hour trip from Clinton to Minneapolis, a trip I took on a Wednesday alone; Kristie and 5-month-old Jack came up with Pops and K and Kim on Friday night.

I can't imagine doing the same thing with Max right now, but we managed with Jack -- and even left him at the hotel with my family and Pops' brother Roger and his family while Kristie and I went to the Mall of America to get my glasses fixed. Max would never stand for that because it takes him so long to warm up to people who aren't his parents.

Anyway, sorry for rambling (tried to break it up with pictures...) but that's what's been on my mind. That and last week was the five-year mark for Travis and Dana Shepard. That was another Minnesota wedding, a trip I remember because on the way out we hit the Buchanan County Fair in Independence with Steve and Angie Flaucher and on the way back we discussed how it might be a good time to start a family. Nearly 10 months later, along came Jack...

Cute as cute can be

That's right, eat it up...

Life with Jack

I have a 10:30 a.m. conference call every Thursday. About 10:25 today I was at the printer to grab the agenda for the call before heading out of the room to go to the place where we always do the call. About 10:26, my cell phone rings, showing Kristie on the caller ID.

Kristie calls my desk phone. Since we have caller ID at work, I always know who it is. Jack, however, calls my cell phone. A lot. Sometimes several times a day. Many times it's before 9 a.m. and he wants me to come home for lunch -- and pick up some mac and cheese on the way. Generally our phone calls involve him saying something and me repeating it, as a question, to make sure I heard him right (he gets harder to understand the more excited he gets).

Today, however, he wanted to report that he, Kristie and Max had gone to the local hospital for the breastfeeding support group. I was glad she decided to go and bring both boys (and even happier they behaved so well) since my first thought was she wouldn't go if she had to bring Jack and I couldn't watch him because of the call.

Anyway, this was all benign, standard operating procedure. But to outsiders, here's what it looked like:

Scott's phone rings. He punches the "do not disturb" feature on his phone. He says "You're at the hospital?" as he walks out the building. He does not return for more than 45 minutes.

Whoops.

Needless to say, I had a few concerned questions upon my return. Easily diffused, but perhaps I should remember to do more explaining when I'm on the phone with Jack.

Wise words

I don't do nearly enough of this anymore, but I really enjoyed a Barbara Brotman column the Tribune printed Tuesday about the way your life changes so much when you enter a nursing home. Here's a sample:

Nursing homes as currently designed are not places for the independent-minded. They are large institutions with strict rules, some of them Medicare requirements and some the institutions' own.

You don't want dinner at 5 p.m.? You want to hire an aide to walk you down a hallway for an hour? You have no local family to visit but still want to go outdoors once a month or so? You want your TV news channel to be something other than Fox?

Tough.

The problem isn't cruelty; it's institutional reality. Nursing homes that serve large numbers of people are not bastions of individual choice. They deal with old people as groups, and have limited staffing to do otherwise.

There is an intriguing effort under way to radically reimagine group housing for the elderly. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting an effort begun by a Massachusetts physician to replace traditional nursing homes with small-scale residences called "green houses" for 10 to 12 people.

Friends, we had better hope they succeed. You can pursue your singular dreams and make your personal choices all you want now. But the self-actualization generation is going to find elderly institutional life as currently constituted a bitter pill to swallow.

She weaves her larger point around a great narrative about getting a doctor to prescribe her mother one shot of vodka daily so the woman could enjoy her pre-dinner Bloody Mary.

Brotman is a great journalist and storyteller, and this is a fine example of that work. Click here for the full story.

Sights seen

While this may look like a flood photo, it's just the Fox River (a few hundred yards from its terminus) in Ottawa. I'm guessing some (possibly intoxicated) boaters had fun with a loose sign. The geese are just a fortuitous addition.

From Hollands at Home

Parents not discouraged from supporting teen drinking

Column originally published July 15, 2008

Did you drink alcohol before you were legally allowed to do so? Go ahead, 'fess up. You're not alone.

Based only on personal observations formed over the past decade or so, I assume underage drinking is more common than underage smoking. A modern youth waiting to turn 21 before having that first beer is even less likely than the same youth saving themself for marriage.

It is possible to stay sober until you turn that magical age. I did it for several reasons:

* So I could prove it's possible.
* So I could one day tell my kids it's possible.
* To make sure at least someone was clear-headed enough to keep my intoxicated college friends alive.
* I didn't have a lot of money in college and drinking is expensive, even if it's cheap beer. Don't get me started on buying drinks in bars.
* I feared the legal system.
* I feared my mother's wrath and disappointment, much more than the legal system.
* Few people I knew in high school drank either, and I wasn't cool enough to get invited to beer parties.
* Have you ever smelled beer? I've since acquired the taste, but that was no easy process.
* I wanted to retain the moral high ground to some day write snarky columns like this.

Continue reading "Parents not discouraged from supporting teen drinking."

He DOES smile

I promise you, Max is far, far cuter in person than he is in the pictures we post. You should see the ones we don't post. Not even 5 months old and already he's perfected the Holland male trick of looking like a complete doofus for the camera. Somehow Jack escaped that curse... for now.

Anyhow, here's one where we got him sort of smiling. He can do much better, but this is pretty good as far as film is concerned.

From Hollands at Home

Monday in the Park with Jack

From Hollands at Home

Here's two shots from Monday night's trip to the park near our home. I ended up taking more than 50 photos, keeping about 35. These are the two best.

I had to run around after Jack to try to catch him in action, which was possible only because I didn't have Max.

When some kids showed up to play, Jack proudly introduced me by saying "This is my friend, Dad."

From Hollands at Home

Good Day at Starved Rock

We took the boys to Starved Rock State Park for a few hours today, which actually is a pretty simple excursion since it's just about 10 miles from our house. We had to pack like we'd be gone for four hours, although we ultimately were gone for about two. The return trip was a little longer thanks to a detour by Taco Bell, since I decided to bribe Jack into leaving instead of fighting over it.

The trip was 98 percent for Jack. Max really likes to be outside (mostly because he has to be held outside, and he is almost always being held any time he's awake), but the idea was to do something special for Jack, who rarely gets to do what he wants in the middle of the week.

The highlight for Jack was scooting down to a secluded spot (nobody fishing and speaking in foreign tongues) the south bank of the Illinois River and throwing rocks in the water. Here's a transcript of what we sounded like:

Jack: "Hey guys! Watch this!"
Water: (splash)
Jack: "Wow! That was a good one!"
(repeat every 15 seconds for about 30 minutes)

From Hollands at Home

He had a blast. The only two things he really paused for were waving at the little excursion boat in this picture and later watching at least 50 geese file into the river. We did make it up to the Lodge, which Jack usually likes because he likes to look at the koi pond in the hotel lobby. He also likes to play with the ATM unit outside the gift shop. I noticed today the snack machines in the lodge sell a deco of Aviator playing cards for $3.50, which is something I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. Not sure why I spent a sentence telling you that, but I thought you'd like to know. We weren't at the Lodge long, though, and thanks to the taco promise we made it out without incident. Max did appear to get a little sun, but he's no worse for the wear.

Hope you had a happy Sunday. We certainly did.

A few more Jackisms

To add to Scott's post below:

Jack now, instead of screaming that Max is hurting his ears while Max is crying, now screams at Max to use his "inside voice". Never mind that Jack has yet to use his inside voice. But at least he knows what it is.

Also, Jack adds the prefix "fur" to lots of words. Such as Fur-tend (pretend), fur-member (remember), fur-tendo (nintendo), etc.

And, Max still is Captain button-butt. (for those who are unsure of this title, it is proven that Max has a button on his butt that tells him to cry or wake up whenever he is placed on his butt. Upon being picked up, all is again well with the world.)

Life with Jack

Here's a few updates on the way Jack goes about his daily business:

* Jack's main exclamation of choice these days is "Darn dangit!" He sometimes draws it out to make a strong point or says it in a whiny way looking for sympathy. Almost always cute, unless he's directly yelling at one of us.

* Anything Jack is describing in the past tense happened "this morning." Doesn't matter if it was 38 weeks ago, it still happened "this morning." This was quite confusing at first.

* Jack loves loves LOVES his music. Pops and K got him a CD player for Christmas (after he'd already mastered Kristie's old boom box with a 7-disc changer, which was way too big to keep in the living room). He wants to listen to CDs in the car, while he's taking a bath, while he's eating lunch and so on.

His music of choice generally is classical -- big, loud stuff like Sousa marches, the "1812" and "William Tell" overtures, two of his favorite CDs have the word "thunderous" in the title -- or a marching band CD (we have two from the University of Michigan and one each from Notre Dame and Nebraska and a bunch of University of Illinois stuff downloaded on the computer).

He also has the Wee Sing 25th Anniversary Collection, which we first broke out in the kitchen of our Clinton home because singing seemed to help the first days of eating go better, and I got tired of the a cappella routine. This disc is another big favorite these days, especially when we go to Pops and K's house and he can cue it up in the five-disc changer and turn on the remote speakers in the dining room and on the porch.

His favorite song right now, I'd say, is "Stars and Stripes Forever," which he identifies as a ring tone from Kristie's phone. We hear this song many, many times a day.

Jack is so infatuated with his music, either singing to it or dancing or both, that he sometimes will use the video function of our camera to record his radio playing a CD, then watch the video on the computer and sing along to the video. We also have been able to capture him on film, and he gladly watches himself and repeats all the words everyone says on the recording.

Taking it another step, if I've downloaded a clip to the computer but not deleted it from the camera, he will play it back on both sources simultaneously. He is very, very proud of this skill.

And the final destination? The Eye Toy, a PlayStation 2 attachment Jack discovered a few months ago. I don't recall teaching him how to use the recording function, but he now has it mastered. He'll get it ready to go, pop in a CD, sing and dance for the 30-second recording, then promptly watch himself repeatedly. I cannot stress how excited this makes him.

Unfortunately, he does most of this in the privacy of our home. Sometimes you'll catch him belting out "Yankee Doodle" as he rides his tricycle around the block, and we're constantly hearing things like "Let's Go Blue," "Hail to the Victors" and the "Nooma Nooma" song (yes, really) come out of nowhere but the far corners of his mind.

It's quite a sight to see (and hear, but you can;t hear sights) and hopefully more of you will get the experience. He really knows his tunes, and because of this was thrilled to go to church in Libertyville last weekend to hear Aunt Kim and Emily Ergang sing a duet. That's why you go to church, right? To sing songs.

Anyway, there's your update. The boy is a constant marvel. Don't get me started on Max and his occasional displays of scooting magic.

Like-minded thinkers lost in a crowd of opinions

Column originally published July 8, 2008

I've been reading a lot of commentary about the Supreme Court's recent opinion on the Washington, D.C., gun ban, but I'm not really sure why.

I seldom think about guns. I've never really argued passionately for or against the right of citizens to bear arms. I've never been shot or shot at, and I don't want to volunteer for that experience. The last time I pulled a trigger it was on a garden hose.

Maybe I'm drawn to the debate over the way the Bill of Rights was constructed. I know Justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens have different takes on how the language about a "well-regulated militia" made it into the Second Amendment, and thinking about the time and energy the framers put into establishing this country — especially so close to Independence Day — makes me feel like a good American.

Any time individual rights are questioned — even if it's a right we don't intend to exercise — Americans respond with a flurry of emotion. Leading hot-button topics are common knowledge: gun control, drug laws, abortion, gay marriage. They're grist for the mill of public debate, and sometimes it seems the proponents and opponents of any issue are demanding every American make a choice. If you're not with us, you're against us.

But it's just not that easy. Take gun control. I don't own a gun, won't own a gun and wouldn't feel safe letting my kids play at a house where guns are stored. But I respect the rights of hunters, and if someone was using a weapon to threaten me or my family, I'd probably want that person shot, either by police or a licensed citizen, no questions asked.

Continue reading "Like-minded thinkers lost in a crowd of opinions."

Max's checkup

Well, our little piggy weighs in at a healthy 13 lbs 9 oz and is 25.75 inches long. According to the doctor he is following his growth curve nicely, so we are very happy. The reflux is not bad enough to be medicated and not bad enough to affect his growth, which is also good. He received all his shots (there were 3) and an oral vaccine for rotovirus (may God bless the person who invented that one so that we may never repeat the experience Jack had with that disgusting thing). Max was well-behaved, sleeping in the waiting room, smiling at the doctor and the nurse and prompting the receptionist to proclaim him a "beautiful baby boy." Which, of course, he is. Jack, who is all swollen up from mosquito bites, came with us for this appointment. Jack took the opportunity to proclaim to the entire waiting room that he had to potty. About 5 minutes later, he took the opportunity to proclaim again, even louder and with more urgency this time that he had to "go poop out his butt". Charming. The old lady sitting by us laughed.......I lamented how graphic Jack is. Jack also grunts loud enough for anyone standing outside the bathroom door to hear. Since he wouldn't let me in, I would know this.

JackTV

This particular film works better if you can watch it with your head crooked at a 90-degree angle. Also, it's a 14 MB file. Sorry about that, but Kristie shoots long videos and we have the camera set on maximum resolution.

Hey guys!

I much prefer iPhoto and modern Macs to the 2002 PC, software and dial-up we have at our house. That red-eye reduction stuff is pretty slick.

From At Pops and K's

Also, a reminder... I don't post everything from the Picasa site to the blog, so check out the albums to keep up with the latest. Here's a bonus shot of Kim and Maggie.

From At Pops and K's

JackTV

Jack digs all the computers at Pops and K's. Here he's recording himself on one of the family laptops.

Road Trip

Kristie, Jack and Max spent Sunday night through Thursday afternoon in Fulton, then we left around 1 p.m. today from Ottawa for Libertyville. Jack said he would "help me carry stuff to the car," but that that really mean was taking his backpack out and screwing around with my portable CD player (I drive a 98 Buick Century with a tape deck, hence the portable CD player).

On the way to the car, he sees a guy riding his bike down the street and proclaims "We're going to Pops and K's house!" The guy waves and keeps going. Smart. Jack proceeds to the car and goes through the elaborate process of getting the CD player out of the glove box, taking out the "Wee Sing 25th Anniversary" CD and putting in the Michigan Marching Band 2006 season highlights disc, putting the cassette with the line out to the CD player, plugging headphone in the headphone jack (not needed if we're feeding the CD through the car audio, but whatever...) and getting in his seat. He was probably screwing around with this stuff for at least 15 minutes before I actually turned the car on.

So we finally get on the road, get the CD fired up and get on Main Street. We're at a red light, waiting to cross a state highway, when Jack says "Hey guys! You forgot something!" I looked in the back seat, and he was absolutely right -- we'd forgotten to actually strap him into his car seat. He'd been sitting back there so long I just assumed he was actually snapped in. Excellent parenting skills.

In other news, while in Libertyville Jack was out by the fire pit and did NOT get in trouble (a major accomplishment) and he absolutely loved the fireworks... or so I'm told. I volunteered to stay home with Max, Maggie and Nina to watch the Cubs game in the basement.

I have some video to try to get up this weekend, so keep your fingers crossed on that one.

Walk this Way

Time for another completely self-serving post about my walking.

At the end of June, I had amassed roughly 1,359,107 steps, which is roughly the equivalent of 643.517 miles, and 119,257 steps ahead of my pace in my pursuit of attaining 2.5 million steps this year.

The first roughly above is owed to some occasional pedometer malfunction, which requires estimating. It happens a few days every year, and I'm trying to be better about not pouting when it does. The second roughly is because my mileage calculation is based on an estimated stride of 30 inches. On average, that's my general lope. But obviously that shortens going up and down hills, chasing Jack, pacing with Max, etc. On the rare chance I get to hit the treadmill at the Y, I push myself to walk at 4.5 miles per hour, which is a way different stride than my general 100 steps per minute pace going to and from work and strolling with Max.

By point of comparison, here are my June 30 totals dating to 2004, when I started keeping track of this stuff:

Year, Steps (Miles)
2004: 1,158,517 (548.54)
2005: 1,054,459 (499.27)
2006: 995,246 (471.234)
2007: 1,133,468 (536.68)

Another way to look at this is to mark the other dates when I've hit 1.36 million steps for the year:

2004: August 3
2005: August 9
2006: August 21
2007: July 29

I also noticed that if I took no steps for the next 17 days, I still would be ahead of my pace for the year. Obviously winter will be unkind, so eventually I will break my 69-day streak of exceeding my daily goal (6,850), but the hope now is that I get so far ahead in the summer and early fall that I get to 2.5 million before the snow falls. If I keep up the pace I have established since Jan. 1 (7,468 steps per day), I will hit 2,725,682 on Dec. 31.

Anyway, that's the update.

Newspaper stuff

No column this week, but look what I did for today's paper:

Q. Why are six-volt batteries like the ones in lanterns and spotlights so much bigger than nine-volt batteries? One would think that more volts would mean a bigger battery and not the opposite.

A. According to Nick Ergang, a senior chemist in the Colloidal Technologies Group at Nalco Company in Naperville, the six-volt batteries likely are bigger because the applications (like lanterns and spotlights) require more energy. Electrical energy is provided by a combination of current and voltage. This means that for more electrical energy provided by six-volt batteries, more current is needed. Because batteries store electricity, the amount of current provided by the battery is directly proportional to the amount of electrons that are stored in the battery materials. For more energy supplied by a given battery, more current is necessary, which requires more battery materials and bigger batteries.

It pays to know people who know things. You know?