vacation weekend: Fort Wayne

 On Friday we went to the Botanical Gardens.  While not a huge place, it was just right for us.  The kids could get rid of some energy and we could enjoy the plants.  It was fun walking around with Liz and Isaac as we'd all point things out that others hadn't noticed.  Isaac was in a picture happy mood and Joshua was in an anti-picture mood.

At home the kids played more, I took a nap, and we just hung out.  The weather was cold and often rainy, so there wasn't a lot of going outside.

Saturday we went to the new rock climbing gym.  While smaller than Scrapyard, it was still a really nice place...once the initial rush was over.  There weren't many kids, which I found interesting.  People were commenting on Isaac's ability though, and overhearing those conversations was fun.

In the evening we made pasta for dinner.  It was delicious and an interesting experience, but I'm not sure I need to do it more than once a year.

Sunday we went for a walk, because I wanted to move around a bit before the drive home.  It was cold.  We had all our winter stuff, but when we got to the park the wind went right through you.  The kids played on the playground and we all used the outdoor exercise equipment, but we didn't stay overly long.

Oh, throughout the weekend we also played Space Base three times and Isaac always managed to win.  

As always, it was a lovely weekend and a wonderful start to spring break.

Friday: thrifting

I made the kids go thrifting with me today.  It's not something we do all that often, but they needed some clothes that I don't expect them to wear a ton.  We went to three different stores.  The first one took forever and I was a bit worried, but then we realized that I needed to help Isaac first because he needed the most clothes, then I would help Joshua.

We got most of what we needed.  There's a few more things, but I was happy with our haul.

Thursday: CS talk

 Ben gave a talk at Hope College for the computer science department today.  It was a demo of using Matlab in real-time to find the distance of objects in front of a camera.  It was engaging.  It was also my first computer science lecture, even though I've been part of the department for twelve years.

Then, luckily, I was invited to lunch too.  My lunch today was pathetic, but I just didn't know what to do this morning: a half piece of pizza, a piece of cheese, some popcorn, a piece of apple, and some carrots.  And some almonds from my office if I was still hungry.

Also, I now have a picture of a picture of Tornado.

Thursday: Fort Wayne

 Welcome to spring break... For the kids. 

Let's back up.  Ben and I had lunch today and it was really nice.  I got quite a bit of work done afterwards too, and that doesn't always happen in the afternoon. 

Ok.  Then I picked up Joshua, who doesn't think spring break starts until tomorrow.  Then I picked up Isaac, who had to wait for his teacher longer than he wanted and was a bit grumpy about it.  After a brief stint at home I dropped Isaac off at Rock climbing, went to the library, and then to karate.  I picked up Isaac, made him eat faster than normal, and we went to pick up Joshua from piano.  Phew.  I usually don't deal with piano, but otherwise it was a normal Thursday.  From piano we drove to Fort Wayne!

With the exception of I94, traffic was pretty light.  As I pulled off the highway I noticed a funny sound.  I've heard this sound before and last time my lug nuts were loose.  It acts really funny.  When I accelerate or brake there's no sound, but when I'm coasting there's a rattle.  Nathan reminded me that I had a lug wrench in the car, and we proceeded to check all the lug nuts.  Yup!  One wheel had several loose.  Not really dangerously loose, but not as tight as they should be, either. 

Nathan and I stayed up too late talking.  But the first night is always the best for catching up and I don't regret it, although I'm not the one who had to work tomorrow.

Sunday/Monday: life

Last night we were all watching a show with dinner and a large object was dropping into place.  You can hear it, right?  A booming *thunk*.  Well, a thunderstorm was going on outside at the same time and the thunder rolled at the exact same time as the large object dropped into place.  We all laughed because the timing was amazing.

Today was a pretty normal day, all said.  I was rather productive and got a bunch done, but not quite as much as I was hoping for.  As normal, as I walk through the house I see all these other little things that need to be done.  Sometimes I ignore them, but today I did several of them.  Individually they don't take much time, but together they do.

Saturday: life

It was a relatively normal Saturday.  Legos in the morning.  We did family game in the morning.  It was my turn to choose the game, so I choose one we had given to Joshua but that he didn't enjoy on the first play through.  I really thought that he was going to enjoy it, so I wanted him to give it another chance.  He said that he enjoyed it a lot better this time.

After lunch we went to the school play.  The students did a nice job and you could hear most of them, but at the same time the play was only ok.  We all agreed that last year's was better.  I'm hoping that Joshua will be interested in crew next year.

I've said it before this week but I'll say it again: I'm tired.  My brain is busier than normal this week and while I can get to sleep, if I wake up at the wrong time I'm awake.  I think I'll go to bed soon, which is earlier than normal.

Friday: hotel

Last night we, although mostly Ben, was working on some hotel reservations.  The hotel declined our credit card (multiple times, even after texting/emailing to confirm it wasn't fraud).  We tried the other credit card - same thing.  Ben eventually called the first credit card company, got it all sorted out, and got them reserved.

I got a call from the second card in the morning - is this fraud?  I called them back and got to talk to a real person and the conversation went a bit like this:
A: I just got a call about fraud but I'm pretty sure it was me and not fraud
Rep: what you were trying to purchase?
A: a hotel room in location
Rep: Oh!  Wow!  It was actually true.  A few months ago we had a whole bunch of fraudulent hotel charges from [that hotel or that location (I can't remember which)].

How weird is that.