Taking the Boys to Atlanta

Max’s Blue Man Group Audition from Kevin Lawver on Vimeo.

The boys and I went to Atlanta last weekend to hang out with my pal David and go to the Georgia Aquarium. We stayed in a hotel right downtown, went to the Children’s Museum, ate at Legal Seafood, went swimming, watched a movie and had a lot of fun. The pictures are here and there are some more videos to come.

A Kidless Father’s Day

The boys are up in Virginia with my parents, so this was my first kidless Father’s Day in the last nine years. Jen took good care of me though. She made orange rolls for breakfast, made some amazing beef stew for dinner and watched guy TV with me all day. I finished putting the grill together (we’re trying it out tonight – steaks!), worked on Ficly and generally goofed off. The boys called and we got to chat for a while – they’re have a great time being spoiled rotten by their grandparents and aunt and uncle.

Sprouts!

our little patio garden

We have sprouts! Brian and I transplanted Max and his science fair project plants and planted a bunch of other stuff (cucumbers, tomatoes and wildflowers) last Saturday and this week, we have sprouts! We’re trying the little patio garden this year to see if we can keep it watered and actually get something out of it. I’m trying to go in with no expectations, but so far, it looks like we’ll at least get some cucumbers out of it!

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Categorized as Brian, Kevin

25 Things About Me

Because I’m now been tagged three times for the 25 things list on Facebook, and twice for the seven things list, I figured I had to do it… so here I go.

  1. I am horribly addicted to caffeine. I’ve tried to quit in the past, but when work pressure/stress increases, so does my caffeine intake.
  2. I love clementines. I can go through a case a week, easily. I don’t like regular tangerines or oranges, because the seeds are a pain, but clementines are fantastic.
  3. I have an over-developed sense of guilt. I don’t know why. I’ve tried to figure it out and get over it, but nothing’s worked so far.
  4. I’m allergic to shellfish. My allergy developed in my twenties, and I hate it – because I love shrimp, crawfish, crab and lobster. Stupid allergies
  5. I’m snobby about TV (hate most broadcast TV, all my favorite shows get canceled, etc), but still watch some horrible rubbish. But, thankfully, I think I’m finally over my addiction to the various nationalities’ Big Brother‘s
  6. I miss the people I worked with at AOL, but I don’t miss AOL’s management at all.
  7. Aside from my allergies, I really like living in Savannah, but I wish there was more of a tech community there.
  8. I’m very organized at work, but a complete mess at home. Thankfully, Jen keeps things in order.
  9. I’m in awe of my kids most of the time. Sometimes, I want to drop kick them, but most of the time, I’m in awe.
  10. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to be drunk, but not enough to try it.
  11. I don’t understand pet people – dogs, cats, whatever. My mom and I are both allergic to dander, so we never really had dogs or cats when I was growing up. We had a dog for a little while, but that really didn’t work. I don’t understand how people get so attached to things that will basically always be toddlers. My kids eventually stopped crapping on the floor and putting things in their mouths. Like I said, I just don’t get it.
  12. I know I’m not normal, and I’ve decided that I don’t care. The only time I really feel like I belong is at home, work, SxSW or Mashup Camp.
  13. As I’ve gotten older and seen more of the world, my political views have moved farther and farther to the left. I’m pretty sure I’ll never enter Hippie-ville or buy a beret and grow a scraggly revolution beard, but you may hear me muttering “revolution” under my breath from time to time.
  14. I think funny trumps pretty much everything else. If it’s funny, I don’t really care how offensive it might be.
  15. I miss doing Tech X every week. It was a long time ago, but having that weekly goofy performance was a blast. I put an episode up last year. It wasn’t the first, because it took us a good 10-12 episodes to find our “stride”, which feels ridiculous to say, but I said it anyway.
  16. I’m afraid of what will happen when I get tired of writing code.
  17. I love building things and solving problems. I don’t write code for the sake of code. I’ve got to be trying to solve something for it to be fun.
  18. I swear a lot. I keep catching myself and trying to cut back, but I’m really good at it, and the Bible says we’re supposed to develop our talents, right?
  19. I’m not handy. I’m not good with tools or fixing things outside of a computer.
  20. I’ve always wondered how I’d do at standup. Once, in high school, a friend’s mom offered me a gig doing stand up on Saturday nights. I turned her down, but I’ve always regretted it. Of course, I don’t regret it enough to do anything about it now.
  21. I’m inherently lazy. I’d much rather watch TV or play video games than do something productive. I’m not much for creating my own inertia. You wouldn’t know it by how much I work, but once I’m done with work for the day, I’m really done.
  22. I suck at setting and keeping goals outside of work.
  23. I can’t help it, I really really like The Polyphonic Spree. Sometimes, it’s good to be without irony or sarcasm.
  24. I like Thanksgiving more than Christmas. Let’s give it up, people, Christmas is no longer religious, it’s just a stressful gift-giving tradition with ever-mounting expectations for expenditure. I like making Thanksgiving dinner and just hanging out. That’s my kind of holiday.
  25. The manliest thing I do is grill. I love grilling stuff. I’d grill breakfast cereal if I could figure out how.
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Talk about burying the lead

I want to blog, except I don’t really have anything to say. So, mundane details it is!!\
Max received his first quarter report card. He got all A’s and E’s (exceeds expectations) except in music where he got a ‘meet expectations.’ He has school until almost 4, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for more than homework, dinner, and a bit of down time. I want to get him into sports or music, but most of them start too late and keeping everyone healthy for more than 2 weeks in a row has been a challenge.\
Brian has school three days a week and really enjoys it. He gets a little bit of Spanish, music, and art. Considering how inexpensive it is and the fact that they had openings, I am surprised of the quality of care. He had a check up last week where he was pronounced mostly healthy. He has slight allergies and eczema, which we are treating with OTC allergy meds and fish oil. He was really well behaved for the almost 2 hours we were there. Several of the staff commented on it. :)\
Kevin works a lot. He also grills a lot and listens to music. I think that is all I have to say about him.\
The doctor upped my dosage of anti-crazy medicine. YAY! I love not being crazy. I’m not sure if it is working yet. Kevin could probably tell you though.\
We went to a bbq over the weekend that was set here: iconic Savannah. It was really beautiful, like a movie setting.\
Since we have family just outside of DC, I am thinking of taking the boys up for Obama’s inauguration. It’s the day after MLK Day. Imagine all of the fun parades and festivities! The 10-hour drive is kind of daunting though since it will be just 3 weeks after our last 10-hour drive and Kevin won’t be coming with us.\
On Saturday, Nov 15, there is a national protest against Prop 8 in almost a hundred cities across the country. Check for a location near you here. We’re taking the kids down to Jacksonville to participate since it is closer than Atlanta. It also seems like a better choice since Florida just passed a similar measure.\
Last Friday I took the boys to the beach because I thought it would be the last nice day. But nope! The boys have today off for Veteran’s Day and the weather isn’t bad, so we are going to the beach again. YAY for living so close to the beach.

Mark It Zero, Dude

me dressed as Walter Sobchack from The Big Lebowski

I haven’t dressed up for Halloween for years, at least since Max was born. This year, for some reason, I decided that I should be Walter Sobchack from The Big Lebowski this year. Why? I’m not sure.\
I grew the beard just for Halloween… that’s how seriously I took it. And again, I’m not sure why. But, here we are, and I think it came together quite nicely. See?

me as walter vs. john goodman as walter

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Categorized as funny, Kevin

Tybee Island Photo Safari

a series of brightly painted but rusting dinghies leaning against a wall.

I took the boys to Tybee Island today, nominally, to go a photo safari. I had my lovely Nikon D80. Max was sporting the Powershot and Brian had the backup Samsung. Of course, I knew we wouldn’t be taking pictures for long after they saw the water. I got a bunch of shots in, though, since I wasn’t going to near the water.\
Here are a couple of my other favorites from the set:

Brian running away from a wave

A funky outhouse.\
close up of palm leaves.\
\
A guy flying off his skimboard\
Bald guy with an epic head tattoo\
the tybee island pier

The rental house

So, I am totally obsessed with this rental house we’re in. Like, cataloging both its faults and its features. It’s for sale, (for more than I think it should be, but I don’t know anything about the Savannah market.) and it would be both cheaper and easier if we just bought this house instead of some other house in the same basic neighborhood. My list so far:\
Good:\
The sun doesn’t BEAM into the house through the windows, so we can actually have our blinds up all of the time. (We could never do this in Va, due to how the house was oriented. People thought I was a vampire, I am sure.)\
The backyard is really shady and level.\
Large family room.\
Large bedrooms, including master big enough for K’s office.\
Pantry (this somewhat makes up for the smallish kitchen).\
Door to backyard from master. This is great when the kids get dirty, we just shuffle ten feet to my shower. (The door to the backyard from the mudroom didn’t turn out to be so useful- yet.)\
Situated so that we don’t have to see our neighbors if we don’t want to.\
Shed.\
Attic.\
Skylights in master bath and hall bath.\
Bad:\
Side of the house with the driveway is on a “busy” neighborhood street.\
No sidewalks, but this might be true everywhere.\
Kitchen is kind of small.\
Wallpaper/painted walls not to my liking.\
Peel and stick tile in 2 bathrooms and mudroom.\
House trim needs to be repainted.\
Sky-lights in the family room make it really hot and too-bright in certain spots.\
Probably the biggest negative is that there isn’t any wow factor. For some reason, this just doesn’t feel like my house. I guess I should make the decision based on financial criteria rather than emotional, but I don’t think I can. I LOVED my house in Va within 3 seconds of opening the front door. I want that experience and passion again. On the other hand, being detached emotionally frees me up for other things- like cooking- instead of decorating, painting, etc!

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Life in Ga

Kevin is working way too much. He’s up everyday before the alarm and is even out of the house before I wake up.\
I am not sure if it is because we are new here, because we are renting, or maybe just due to it being summer, but I feel like I am on vacation with no to do list. Wheeee. The boys and I just goof around all day until it’s time for me to make dinner. And I actually have been cooking, even breakfast! (The boys got used to having a hot breakfast after a week at Babb’s house and a week in a hotel. Boo. No more cold, continental ones for them. Ha.) Last night I made enchiladas and tortilla soup for the first time and they turned out fabulously!! Sadly, Kevin worked really late and missed the first presentation.\
The house is nice, but the kitchen is a bit small. Everything is a mess, but a functioning one. I am not even bothering to unpack everything. There are still boxes everywhere and I don’t really plan to change that, since we don’t have any visitors coming soon :(. The boys are sharing a room, one room is a play room that no one uses- but it’s pretty, one room is full of food storage, and that leaves the master for us and K’s not-yet-set-up office.\
The boys seem to be happy but miss Kevin. Max has been alternating between playing on the computer and reading Harry Potter. Brian flits from toy to toy. He likes to run and scoot around the circle of the house (living room to dining room to kitchen to family room to entry way to living room, etc). We also play in the sprinklers a lot and then he hops in the shower to get his feet clean. We don’t have tv yet, so in the wee morning when I am not ready to be awake and in the afternoon before Brian crashes for a nap, we watch the same 4 videos. The other day I splurged and bought Flushed Away, so make that 5 videos.\
That’s pretty much our life so far!

Last day

Today is Kevin’s last day at AOL. He’d been there for 13 years. Can you imagine? That is the same amount of time spent in school. AOL helped him find his passion, meet like-minded people, travel the world, pay off my student debt (hey, super thanks for that), and develop into an awesome web dude. Over 100 people went to his goodbye party. Which, wow. Thanks, AOL. You’ve been awesome to us, which we’ll always appreciate. Bye now. Have a great summer. Keep in touch!\
ETA- Oh noes! Kevin doesn’t have the internet attached to his hip anymore. I am going through withdrawal already.