New Patio?

I've been wanting to get some stone work done in the landscaping. We've wanted a stone patio pretty much since the first day we moved in over eight years ago. We've landscaped lots of the yard, but this patio would be a really nice addition.

Below is a pretty accurate drawing of our current landscaping:



And this is what I would like to do. I would like to add a stone flagstone patio to give us an upper and lower deck. The problem is that the yard slopes quite a bit here, and there is probably a 30" elevation difference between the top and the bottom of what would be the patio. This makes it quite challenging for a do-it-yourselfer like me.



The blue represents the phase 1 portion; red is phase 2, and magenta is phase 3. I may do all three phases at once, it really just depends on cost.

Last of the tulips

Here are the very last of the tulips. All the other tulips have faded and gone. These are still blooming, and I think these are the very prettiest ones of them all. They're smaller and much more delicate than the others.




We've also got the very first of the dutch iris blooming now. These are called Batik iris, and they're my favorite iris. They look as if you've touched a piece of tissue paper at the edges with a puddle of purple ink.

 

Blasted Contraption!

Today was the used book fair at the boys' school. This is a day they greatly anticipate. First, we begin by cleaning house on all the books they no longer read, and for every ten books they bring in, the boys get a $1 credit towards another book purchase.

We took in 200 books, and the boys each earned a $10 credit. So, out with the old and in with the new. Luke chose a real cheese-log of a book called Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't know why someone would want to get rid of this!

It's a quasi-comic book, which I have later learned is called a "graphic novel." The cover is like a regular paperback, but otherwise, it's just a comic book inside without advertisements.

The book is filled with voluptuous babes, big guns, and cheesy macho role models. The dialog is trite and overdone. This is perfect dreck for Luke. He lops this stuff up like I do sausage gravy. As a parent, I have to say, "Hey, at least he's reading!"

To give you a sample of the literary (ahem) content within its pages, here's one of the fine captions:


What did Eddie choose? Is it any surprise that Eddie chose more academic titles--geography and culture books on Canada, Germany, Japan, China, and one about U.S. National Parks?

Body for Life update

This is just a short one tonight.....

I was standing in front of the mirror this evening, flexing my muscles, trying to see if there were any change in my physique yet (especially in my abs).

I was flexing and grunting and straining my face, trying hard to get some kind of abdominal muscle to pop out when Luke walked by, saw me, and asked Becky, "Is Dad trying to poop or something?"

Uh, yeah, thanks Luke.

Ronan's Birthday Party

The kids had YABP (yet another birthday party), and this one was majorly cool. They went to Ronan's party at the Loudoun Academy of Martial Arts, run by Master Hall. See for yourself how much fun they had!

Swimming Video

Here's the video from Saturday's swim meet. Becky filmed me and my friend, Kevin, swimming at this meet. It's great to have this video to analyze our strokes objectively and look for areas to improve.

It's also pretty cool video for those of you who have never seen one of these meets. Two hundred men in speedos!

Attack of the Trash Monster!

"He's got angry eyes!"

"He's a trash monster!!"

"He's mad because he didn't get recycled!"

So says Luke. My son has constructed this trash monster only out of trash (he calls them 'treasures') he found around the neighborhood--an old bed spring, two wheel bearings, a gold bead garland, old paperboard tubes, and a bunch of electrical tape.

Then, inspired by his creation, the mad scientist sat down and penned this story about him.

Good swimming today

What a great day for a swim! It was pouring rain all day outside, but it was warm and balmy under the big dome at George Mason University.

I had a great day. I made personal best times in three of the four events I swam, and came within one second of getting a best time in the fourth as well. I'm not the fastest swimmer in these meets; I typically come in at the bottom of the age group results, but the competition is fierce. I'm swimming against men who've probably swum since childhood, and train a hell of a lot more than I do. I'm glad to be among them, and enjoy mostly competing against my own past records.

As I've recently passed into a higher age grouping, the competition has gotten even more intense. In the 30-34 age group, there were about half as many competitors as there are in 35-39. The most competitive age groups are 40-44, 45-49, and 50-54. These are the guys who could swim circles around me. I figure they've gotten their kids off to school, and now spend almost all of their leisure time in the pool. (No thanks.)

At these meets, I like to swim a variety of strokes, to get a baseline set of times for each of the major stroke groups: freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke. I will have a really cool video online soon showing the swimming. Just as soon as Google approves it.

Here are my stats from the meet:

Event	Final	Split 1	Split 2	Comment
100 FR	1:04.86	30.99	33.87
50 FL	33.98			BEST
100 BR	1:21.20	37.72	43.48	BEST
50 BK	40.52			BEST

There are always some amazing people at these events. One man, Michael Ross, obtained a Master's Swimming World Record with a 50 yard backstroke time of 23.06! This time was nearly half of what I got! And, he was swimming in my age group, thank-you-very-much.

Even more amazing was an eighty-one year old gentleman who swam the 200 butterfly. YES! The 200 Butterfly!! Hell, I can't even swim the 200 butterfly, and this guy did it!

He limps over to the blocks, asks one of the timing girls to hold his cane, and two people help him up onto the blocks. The old man looks so frail that I think he's going to shatter into a thousand pieces when he jumps in the water. But nevertheless, the beep sounds, and he's off. He's really, REALLY slow through the first 150 yards, and everybody else has long finished, but he keeps going. His stroke is stiff and slow, just what you'd expect from an octogenarian.

Upon making the turn for the final 50 yards, the old man comes alive! He starts undulating a nearly perfect dolphin kick and starts throwing his arms out there like he wasn't doing before. And the crowd goes absolutely wild! Everybody starts chanting, and clapping, and cheering this guy onward. I wish I'd videotaped it, because it was magic. The timing girls, who are usually bored to tears, are down on their hands and knees, smiling broadly and cheering this guy on. Everybody is shouting for him. It is really a rare magic moment.

And when he reaches the finish, he pauses with both of his hands up in the air, and makes a very exaggerated thump with his two hands onto the gutter drain. Then, hearing the crowd's accolades, he pumps one fist in the air. Truly inspiring.

I hope I am still swimming when I'm eighty. Maybe by then, I can get a medal for just showing up.

Little Boy Blue

Yesterday, Luke performed a nursery rhyme for his kindergarten class. He had one of the longer poems, Little Boy Blue. His teacher is seen seated next to him in the video. He looked really handsome and did a great job!

Big Swim Meet Tomorrow

My public (that is, JamesF) was pressuring me about why I hadn't posted anything lately. It's been a bit of a busy week, and I haven't had a whole lot to say lately. But rest assured, there is another video on the way--this one is of Luke doing a poem recital for his kindergarten class. It's very cute, and about 15 seconds long.

In other news, I do have a big swim meet tomorrow at George Mason. Mason has the best meets. All of the swimmers are electronically tracked, and their names appear on a big scoreboard with all their times, inlcuding splits. It's a very efficiently run meet with not a lot of time spent waiting for heats and event changes. Plus, the pool is very clean and the temperature just right!

As always, I'm a little bit nervous about it, hoping to do well. I'm swimming in the 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 50 butterfly, and 50 backstroke. Just those four events. I hope to break my times, but its been two years since my last meet. The times I care most about would be breaking 1:03 for the 100 freestyle, and breaking 1:25 for the 100 breaststroke. I'd like to get below one minute on the freestyle. I think I am capable, and I feel really good going into tomorrow, but we will see how it goes.

Worst case, it's a really good excuse to get out and do some swimming on Saturday, regardless of how I do. I just have to remember that so I don't get too worked up about it.

Easter Service Music

Here's the video of the boys' singing at St. Peter's on Sunday. They both did a great job, but the camera's mic doesn't pick it up too well. I tried to enhance the audio a bit and level out the volumes, remove static, etc., and the audio quality is somewhat improved, but still not perfect.

Eddie had his debut performance in the Choristers, which is a real bona-fide choral instruction group at the church. Mrs. Verdile is giving them formal instruction in voice technique, breathing, reading music, etc. They earn their vestments as they progress further, and they get ribbons and such beyond that. I'm really excited that Eddie is able to take this level of formal training (I think he has such enormous potential), and I'm further excited that it's totally FREE!!!!!! If church singin' is good enough for Whitney, it's good enough for Eddie! Eddie is taking it really seriously and seems to enjoy it quite a bit. Good! Good! Good!

Not to be left out, Luke is in the "Children's Choir". This is a less formal group of just-beginners. Luke enjoys it a lot, and I'm glad he is doing so well. You can see he is really singing here, not just following along. And if you listen real hard, you can hear him standing out from the others.

Regardless of the poor sound quality of my camera, this is some good Eddie and Luke video, for those who are interested in such things!

Featured Movie of the Week -- Easter Egg Hunt

Here's the video from the Easter egg hunt we did at our house. The Easter Bunny was very good to the boys, bringing them lots of eggs, candy and a couple of new Lego toys. It was a beautiful Spring morning--perfect weather for an egg hunt.

Body for Life update

I worked out my upper body this morning. I'm still building into the proper weight for chest and shoulders; both of those sessions were too light today. However, I'm maxed out now on triceps and biceps--maybe over doing it a little. I'm sore as hell right now. But it's probably good; I do want to push myself hard.

I started this stuff on April 9th. If I count out the 12 weeks, I should see "results" on July 2nd. Not that I plan to quit after 12 weeks--it is supposed to be Body for Life. The coolness of a new program is starting to wear off. I still look forward to the workouts, but today, I decided to put on some tunes (Sirius Spectrum) to keep myself entertained. I'm also getting better at transitioning through the sets, adding the weights and staying on track without getting too far behind. I knew that would come with practice.

My schedule is not the ideal for the BFL schedule. The aerobic days don't strictly alternate with the weight days, but I'm bound to my USMS schedule. Also, my USMS swims are 90 minutes, not 20 minutes, but again, I'm bound. I'm happy with it, though, as long as I try to swim really hard, it should suffice. And at least I'm not doing weights two days in a row, which would be bad. Here's how my schedule has shaped up:

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Workout	Upper / Lower weights 5:00am	90 min Masters Swim 5:30am	90 min Masters Swim 5:30am	Upper / Lower weights 5:00am	90 min Masters Swim 5:30am	Upper / Lower weights time flexible	REST
Eating	moderate	moderate	moderate	moderate	moderate	go nuts!	moderate

Guan Yin

Eddie is a flighty creature. He has renamed his hamster from Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain) to Guan Yin (Goddess of Compassion). He read about her in a story that Grandma had read to him. I don't know what to call it, I'm still calling her "him." But we had her out for the first time tonight, and she ate from our hands and rolled around in her ball. The boys were thrilled and Guan Yin seemed to tolerate us well. She has a sweet tooth for dandelion flowers, and luckily, I don't use any herbicide or pesticide, so ours are safe (and plentiful).

Also, here's a goofy picture of Luke. We bought the boys a couple of sailor hats from Anything Goes the other night. Luke wore his the rest of the weekend. (I strictly forbade him from wearing it at Easter church service!) At the mexican restaurant, he enjoyed storing his nacho chips in it. Those sailor hats are so useful!

Easter Morning (part two)

Here are some more pictures from the Easter service. I just finished the video from the service, and have posted it to Google. It will be ready soon. Please stay tuned. Eddie's singing is well worth the wait!

Easter Morning (part one)

Good morning, and Happy Easter!


Here are some early photos from our Easter morning before church. The boys did their egg hunt, and I will have a movie of it posted in the next day or two--look for it!

It's a glorious morning, sunny, a little breeze, and Spring is in full bloom! (I especially like the picture of the redbud, below.)

Eddie and Becky will be performing in the choir today, and Grandma and Grandpa will join Luke and I in the pews. I'm sure it will be a very special Easter service, especially with Eddie's debut in the Choristers.

Anything Goes

Becky and I celebrated our thirteenth anniversary last night. Grandma and Grandpa Duke watched the boys, while Becky and I checked into the Hilton near Dupont Circle. We went out to Olney, Maryland to eat dinner and see a show.

I made reservations at a small hole-in-the-wall Belgian restaurant called Le Mannequin Pis--I had read about it in the Washington Post. The food was really, really delicious! The ambiance was great, like one of those quirky little restaurants you seem to only find in Europe, with kitschy little posters on the wall and a peeing-boy fountain at the bar. They specialize in Belgian ales, but I had wine instead.

Becky had a tossed salad, and I had escargot for appetizers. Then, I had the special--duck breast with plums on a bed of wilted spinach. The duck was good, but what Becky had was better. The restaurant specializes in mussels, and they have a whole menu devoted to just mussels. Becky had a one kilo pot with horseradish, garlic, rosemary, celery and onions and pommes frites on the side. She ate half; I ate my dinner and the other half of hers. (It was my day off for Body For Life!)

Then, we finished off with a chocolate dessert. I forget what it was called, but it was like two slabs of fudge with almonds in it, on a plate of raspberry sauce. Add a cup of decaf for Becky and an espresso for me, and Delicious!

After dinner, we went out to the Olney Theatre to see Anything Goes (by Cole Porter, et. al.). The show was very good. All of the actors performed really well, and it was a very entertaining show. It's nice living in an area like D.C., the quality of the theater is so good. You can tell that these actors are "on the rising side" of their careers. It beats the community theater quality stuff you see in other places. I only wish the boys could have seen the show. Had it not been so late, they would have really enjoyed the show, especially the large ensemble tap dance numbers near the end of both acts.

This morning, we awoke at a leisurely 7:30 (leisurely for us!), and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant: eggs benedict (of course) for me, and a vegetable fritata for Becky. It was a pretty nice evening/morning.

When we got home, Grandpa reported that the boys were very good. He slept in our bed last night to be closer to the boys, and was rudely awakened at 4:45am when my alarm went off. Oops! Between that and the cuckoo clock, I don't think he got much sleep last night.

Tai Who?

Tai Shan is the name of one of the pandas at the National Zoo. I guess I should know that, living near DC and all. Call me clueless. My eight year old son knew that when he named his panda-bear hamster, and I didn't. He's much smarter than I am.

I guess I should have known this and I didn't. Consider it one of my blonde moments.

Tai Racket

Okay, so we should rename Tai Shan to Tai Racket. I always knew that hamsters were nocturnal, but I guess I wasn't totally ready for it.

Tai Shan enjoys carrying her food nuggets up into her exercise wheel and leaving them there. Then, about 11pm last night, she decides it's time for a workout. The wheel is rattling like crazy, and ultimately even wakes up Frank, which takes some doing! Frank begins barking like a crazy dog, and I have to get up to shove him back under the covers with Eddie.

Meanwhile, the hamster just keeps on running. Rattle, rattle, clatter, clatter. I'm hoping I can get used to it. If I can sleep through my kids whining, a cuckoo clock and my wife's various forays in the night, I guess I can sleep through a hamster rattling it's wheel too.

Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain)

Eddie has a new pet. Her name is Tai Shan (which is Mandarin for Peaceful Mountain, supposedly). Tai Shan is a female panda-bear hamster. Eddie's pretty thrilled.

Springtime flowers

Here are some photos of the flowers blooming in my garden now--some really nice tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinth, and bleeding hearts.




 

Springtime pictures continued...

 

Body for Life Update

Today I did my second BFL upper body workout: shoulders, chest, back, triceps, biceps, in that order. The workout was pretty intense, and by the end, I could barely do the bicep curls. But I was able to do it, and best yet, at a higher weight than last week. I will need to increase on the shoulders, as that was pretty easy still. I'm still honing in on the proper weight I should use, since I've never really done it before.

I then had a quick one-egg omelete and a slice of wheat toast and a big glass of skim milk. Delicious! I'm sore now, but I feel great! The swimming tomorrow will be good to stretch everything out and keep the heart-rate up.

Saturday, I will do lower body workout number two.

Statistically Insignificant Musings: Practicing Photographing

My friend James has a really nice Nikon D70 camera. I would like to pick one of these up for my birthday.

He was goofing around with some different "artistic" shots, and captured some nice results. I definitely would like to get a camera like his with a nice zoom.

Statistically Insignificant Musings: Practicing Photographing

Featured Movie of the Week -- Sesame Street Pinball

If you're old enough, you will fondly remember this little clip from what I consider the "vintage" days of Sesame Street in the 1970's.

I watched Sesame Street a few years ago, as my kids were coming through their fours and fives, and I have to say I was very disappointed. There were very few good cartoon or claymation clips, and the stories that ran throughout the episode weren't very interesting. There were also less puppets than before. You could actually get through an entire episode and never see Grover, Kermit, the Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, or Oscar the Grouch, not to mention the Count, Mr. Snuffaluffagus, etc.

What was most disappointing is that for the last third of the show, they switched over to Elmo's World, which is really a whole different show-within-a-show. And I hate it.

So, now I sound like one of those old codgers... "Yeah, back in my day, Mr. Hooper was the best! And Maria? Hubba! Hubba!"

Anyhow, here's vintage Sesame Street, that my kids should enjoy:

Off to Scotland!!

We're finally confirmed for our summertime trip. We're going to Scotland this July! I am really excited! Oh, the haggis, fried lamprey, blood pudding and kidney pie I will eat! I guess that's why they always wash stuff down with a strong single malt whiskey. That and to keep your business toasty whilest wearing a kilt on those cold foggy morns.

On the way there, we're going to stop over in Iceland. Iceland Air is running this great deal where you get to stay up to seven nights in Iceland and still just pay the one fare to the U.K. I figure it's a pretty cheap way to see Iceland (just hotel and food). Maybe I'll run into this little lady while relaxing in a natural spa. Or more likely, these folks:

Goldfinches have molted

With the blooming forsythia and daffodils, the goldfinches have molted and are now sporting their new yellow coats. It's funny that April seems such a yellow month. So many of the first signs of Spring are yellow.