Year: 2008 Page 2 of 15

The really big news from yesterday is that Kelly passed her Spanish CLEP test with flying colors.  I think Rosetta Stone Spanish and the CLEP study book we purchased were a good combination.  Lorena, Kelly, and Christian drove down to Johnston Community College in Smithfield, NC to take the test.  I talked to a lady named Ciara on the telephone to set up the test.  She is the test administrator.  Lorena talked to her in person for quite awhile while Kelly took the test.  It turns out she is just as nice in person as she is on the telephone.  We plan to take all our tests there from now on.  The next time they travel to Smithfield in early February, Kelly plans to take the History of the United States II:  1865 to the Present exam.  In the meantime, study books for the CLEP Biology, Psychology, and Sociology are on the way.  We will wait until toward the end of the year to start working on the biology because we want her to finish the excellent Exploring Creation with Biology by Jay Wile before she prepares for the CLEP test.  Hopefully they will get her in time for to start studying either Psychology or Sociology next week.

Christian is almost ready to take the Freshman College Composition CLEP test.  He could probably pass the test now, but we want him to be over prepared for the first one.  He plans to take the test at the same time Kelly takes U.S. History II in February.  Meanwhile he studies Western Civilization I:  Ancient Near East to 1648 along with the Freshman College Composition.  After those two, he will move on to Spanish and Western Civilization II:  1648 to Present if there is enough time with all the other studies.

Everything else is moving along fine.  As usual, we got hammered pretty hard with testing, Thanksgiving and the visit from Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah, but Christian should be completely caught up and on schedule with math and everything else by tomorrow.  Kelly has her first annual cookie exchange tomorrow night, so I expect her to be a little behind until Tuesday of next week.  Our next really big school event is the ACT test both Kelly and Christian will take on February 7–Christian as part of the Duke Talent Identification Program and both of the kids to be in compliance with North Carolina homeschool laws.

We are slowly returning to normal in the Chapman household.  Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah went home yesterday.  We are slowly eroding the overload of food in the refrigerator.  The kids are back on their regular homeschool schedule even though they have a little catching up to do because of the holidays and some upcoming tests–more on that tomorrow during my monthly homeschool update.  I have access to the scales again now that Grandpa and Grandma are not using the downstairs bedroom.  Actually, I was pretty worried about that, but when I weighed this morning I was EXACTLY where I left off when they got here over a week ago.  I have flat-lined on the graph for the last week at 30.2 pounds lost since I started last February.  I have decided to start a new graph on January 1 so that Bryan, Lyle, Brad, and I can keep going for another year.  It has helped a lot to post this every day.  If anyone else would like to join the game, let me know and we will show you how to record stuff.

We have made a new resolution to use the computers a lot less in our household.  For the last few months, we spent a lot of time with the computer, sometimes at the expense of time with each other.  We have associated each computer for use at specific times, locations, and task.  We have resolved to stay off the internet so we can spend more time on reading, art, knitting, radio assembly, etc.  It has started off quite well and I think it will get even better as we get caught up on the homeschool work backlog.

Update:  My buddy John, the jack of all trades, brought in these very cool origami boxes.  He is going to show us how to make them!

Lorena will take Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah to the airport after Kelly’s piano lesson this morning.  We have very much enjoyed having them here.  Lorena and Grandpa Milo cooked Lorena’s new tortilla soup last night before meeting.  That was in keeping with the theme of the whole visit–cooking and eating.  We still have a refrigerator full of Thanksgiving food and a bunch of uncooked stuff.  The kids are hammering hard on their homeschool again.  We are really in pretty good shape compared to in previous years after a big holiday like this.  We need to be on top of our game for the next couple of months as we have some big tests coming up.

Kelly is having all the ladies from meeting over for a cookie exchange on Friday night.  I am thinking of getting all the husbands that do not have any place to go and hang out at our place.

Well I had a very nice Thanksgiving. Grandpa and Christian and I cooked a bunch, and I started knitting a pair of fuchsia colored sparkle slippers. We were silly enough to go to JoAnn Fabric on Black Friday. Bad idea! The lines were insanely long and it seemed like everyone was at the craft store!!! Fortunately, the yarn that I bought was on sale for a buck a skein so that sort of made up for the long wait. Dad also got an iPod charger at Circuit City to replace my missing one. I am finally back to Celtic Woman and Flamenco Guitar!!! I also discovered my new favorite sandwich combination. Cranberry sauce and turkey on French bread. That stuff is good! Not extremely healthy, but good! 😀

Right now I am reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I find it funny that I’d never read it before (Though I’d seen the animated movie Treasure Planet when I was little), but better late than never as they say! It’s a great book. The classic pirate adventure story.

Now it’s back to homeschool and exercising and all that fun stuff. This Friday most of the ladies from our meeting are coming over for a cookie exchange, so that’s another thing to keep us busy! I really can’t wait!! I think I found a good recipe: Peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss in the middle. Mom might make pineapple empanadas too!

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  After meeting Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah took us out to Red Robin with Troy and Youngin for a hamburger.  Troy and I talked engineering and school topics while Dad and the women laughed and laughed.  Incidentally, Troy and Youngin have started a blog.  You can see it here.  Christian was a little under the weather, so he was quieter than normal.  Before we went to meeting I took a picture.

Ready for meeting

Then, after a GREAT nap, Grandpa Milo showed the kids how to make Bananas Foster.  Here is a picture and a video of that exciting event.

Bananas Foster

We had an absolutely great Thanksgiving.  We had a great dinner complete with quality time in the preparation.  We had a houseful of friends over for dessert (Thank you Lester and Esther for sharing your family with us.).  Grandma Sarah and Esther’s mother talked about their Finnish heritage.  The rest of us ate apple pie, key lime pie, flan, pumpkin pie, and who knows what other kind of pie.

Today has been very lazy so far.  We got up late, ate a bowl of cereal, hung out at Barnes and Noble for several hours, picked up an iPod cable to replace the one Kelly lost, bought some yarn for knitting Christmas presents, and ate a late lunch at Wendy’s (our favorite fast food).  Now everyone is taking a nap.  Lorena, Christian, and I are going to run down to the store while Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah nap and Kelly knits.  There is way too much food in the house.  I am going to start the turkey soup simmering before we go.  We will eat soup and hang out today with the hope of more of the same tomorrow.

We have started preparing for Thanksgiving.  Everyone is in the kitchen except me (I might wreck or eat stuff so I am banned).  Updates will follow.

Thanksgiving Prep Crew

Grandpa’s Stuffing Sausage

The new Thermador put to good use

Flowers for the table

Dad gets banned to the blogging couch

Lorena makes FLAN!!!

“If I put it in at 11:43 and want it to be in for one hour, when do I take it out? They did not teach me this when I took calculus.”

Grandpa Milo cooking with Kelly and Christian

Here is what they were cooking

She was not going to tell me how she lit the candle without burning herself

The only thing for which Dad is qualified is mashing the potatoes–this year Grandpa Milo added a special mix of chipotle, fresh roasted corn kernels, and butter

Grandpa Milo Carves the turkey while Christian watches on

Grandma Sarah makes the best gravy in the history of the world

A wonderful feast

A wonderful feast – a second picture to get everyone in

They’re here!  Christian and I are looking forward to a nice long weekend of cooking!  Grandpa brought Sunset magazine with him, and our Thanksgiving plans have been somewhat changed:

Wine smoked turkey (instead of the regular, butter smothered, roast turkey)
Italian Chard Stuffing
Cornbread Chorizo dressing (aka: stuffing)
Grandpa’s version of Sweet Potatoes

Then all the other normal stuff like rolls and salad.  Grandpa is also planing on making bananas foster, a very fancy dessert.  We won’t make it for Thanksgiving, but we will make it sometime this week.  Mom took us to CostCo yesterday and we got 2 pumpkin pies, an apple pie, and a key lime pie so we’re pretty much all set for Thanksgiving dessert! I’m so excited! 

Right now we are getting ready to go to Christian’s guitar lesson so I have to go.  Sorry this is so short, but I will have many stories in detail soon!!!

I picked up Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah yesterday evening right on schedule.  Lorena had stew and a nice salad waiting for us when we got home.  We are awful glad to have them here.  We have decided that we are going to divide the cooking up into three events.  Tomorrow, we are going to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, black olives, etc.  Lester, Esther, and their family will come over tomorrow evening for dessert so the Finnish ladies can meet each other.  Then, one evening, Grandpa Milo will make a gourmet meal that he will teach to Kelly and Christian.  Finally, we will cook a second turkey on the grill on Saturday just to see if we can do it.  We have a really small grill, so we are not so sure how it will turn out.

Christian, Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and Kelly

Grandpa Milo is going to help us plan our yard.  We want to do something next summer that is not too expensive, but that will be fun when we entertain.  Grandpa Milo has some ideas on a fire pit.  I think that sounds great.  Maybe we can run down to Home Depot to look at materials so we can know what we need to buy when we get started.

I went into work a couple of hours later than usual today because I have to pick up Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah at the airport a little before seven tonight.  Lorena is going to run to Costco after Kelly’s piano lesson to do her Thanksgiving dinner shopping.  Everything is coming together for our big dinner.  Our friends, Lester and Esther will come over to for dessert with Esther’s folks so they can meet Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Milo.  Both Grandma Sarah and Esther’s Mom have Finnish mothers, so it will be fun to listen to them compare notes.  I will try to put up a few pictures as we pass through the holidays.  We really do not have much planned other than to cook a lot and eat a lot without gaining too much weight–as if that were possible.

This weekend we went to a get together up in Charlotte.  Very fun! I saw a bunch of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time, which was nice.  We played Winkum, Mafia, Spoons, All of the Bears are out Tonight, Do you know how Mary died?, Scream, Tangle, Guitar Hero, and a weird game where you hold up yourself and three other people like a table using only your knees and legs. We played soccer too, which explains why I ache all over.  But it was worth it. Christian and I also learned how to play football.  When we told the kids that we didn’t really know the rules to the game and that we’d never played before, there was a shocked silence.  But they were nice enough not to tease and patient enough to show us what to do. I don’t understand the fascination with it, but I think I know enough now to follow the game! That counts!  I also attempted to play volleyball for the millionth time.  And again… it didn’t work out very well.  Dad says he’ll show me how to play sometime, so I’ll at least be passably good next time we go to a get together.

Christmas carols started playing on the Radio on Thursday!!! 🙂  I was so excited and happy to hear them, but I am restraining myself until after Thanksgiving. If I start listening to Christmas songs too early, I get disappointed when Christmas actually rolls around.  It’s too much of a good thing. So I’m going to revel in the Thanksgiving spirit while I can, and save all the Christmas-y stuff for later. It’s killing me though!

We drove to Charlotte for a big, weekend long get-together with a bunch or our friends from both the Raleigh-Durham area and Charlotte.  The kids played soccer, volley ball, and parlor games with their friends.  The stayed up half the night talking and carrying on.  Rex, Linda, and Amy worked for weeks to get the whole thing ready and then worked even harder while we were there to make everything just right.  It was a weekend to remember and for which to be thankful.  We got up at five in the morning to get home in time for meeting on Sunday, but promised to stay for meeting if they do this next year and have the lack of foresight to invite the likes of us again.  It was very, very good for our kids and encouraging for Lorena and I, too.

An old buddy, Kirk, was there with his family.  He started at Oregon State U. just a little after I, but moved to North Carolina after he graduated.  On Saturday evening, I noted that the Beavers were down by one point with less than three minutes left in their game against Arizona.  They had to win to stay in the running to play in the Rose Bowl.  I quit checking the score because I knew they had no chance.  When I checked this morning, I saw they had won on a field goal kick on the last play of the game.  The funny deal is that Kirk and I are about the same when it comes to OSU football.  We are interested in the score and like to see the Beaver’s win, but neither of us are that interested in watching the games or are particularly devastated when they lose.  I always say I like to talk trash about the games over the water cooler at work a whole lot more than I like to see the games themselves.  My favorite team by far is whoever is playing the Ducks.  The Beavers are a distant second.  It is way more fun to hate the Ducks than love the Beavers.  That is especially true after having lived in and around Corvallis so many years.  At any rate, my two favorite teams are playing each other next week:  whoever is playing the Ducks and the Beavers.  If the Beavers win, they go to the Rose Bowl.

A little know fact is that Oregon State beat Duke at a Rose Bowl played close by in Durham, North Carolina in 1942 due to considerations associated with the on-going World War II.  It is amazing that OSU has significant sports connections to this part of the world.  The other big one being that OSU beat the University of North Carolina for the college baseball national championship two years in a row in 2006 and 2007.

We were going to do Rubix, too, but Lorena would not let us.  Lorena, Kelly, and Christian are going to drive to my work this afternoon, so we can leave from there to Charlotte for a get-together with a bunch of great kids (and grown-ups, too).  My work is about a half an hour closer to Charlotte than where we live.Now that we have our haircuts, we are all cleaned up for the big party.  We have very much been looking forward to this weekend, but it is about a three hour drive so we want to get started as early as possible from the right side of town.  It was snowing when I drove to work this morning.  I hope it is not going to be snowy and slick on our drive there.  It looks like it will clear up for the drive home tomorrow.

Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah are driving the new machine built by Grandpa Milo and his buddy, Del Weber, over to Quality Corners in Idaho.   It allows us to make some great additions to our product line.  It is a funny deal that we are picking up business like crazy during this downturn.  A lot of it is business we won away from China, but there are some new products in the mix, too.  They were going to drive from Portland to Pendleton last night which is about half way.  I hope there is not too much snow on the pass for them.  They are scheduled to fly to Raleigh from Portland on Tuesday, so they will be in a whirlwind of travel for the next few days.  I am glad Dad went over to install the machine.  I am excited to hear how it goes.

Kelly and I are entering into a “no bad snacks” pact for healthier eating.  I have been staying about flat on the weight loss death match with some serious ups and downs, so I am trying to rework my system.  I have two areas where I need serious work.  First, I do well all day long during the week, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I pig out on all kinds of stuff when I arrive home from work.  I promised that I would restrict what I eat when I get home to some health stuff in reasonable amounts.  Second, I absolutely have no self control on the weekends, so I have promised to stick to a more health diet with not a lot of snacking then, too.  For her part, Kelly is going to quit snacking so much on unhealthy stuff and go from 90% ranch dressing and 10% carrots to 98% carrots and 2% ranch dressing.  We are both going to be more measured in our mealtime consumption by putting reasonable amounts on our plates and eating it slow.  Kelly has promised to hold my feet to the fire on this.  If I do not do something, both Lyle and Brad are going to catch me.

We have several computers around the house, we use for a variety of different tasks.  None of them are particularly special and a couple of them are getting toward the end of their useful life.  Our plan to reorganize the computers over the holidays has more to do with the fact that we want to have an excuse to fool around with the computers than with an benefit we might derive from the reorganization.  On the other hand, we might learn something.  Today, I will list the computers and how each of us uses them.  I hope Lorena, Kelly, and Christian will correct me where I am wrong.

The HP computer in the living room

• Specs:  AMD 64-bit microprocessor, 512M RAM
• OS:  Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
• Internet:  Wired connection to the router
• Printer:  HP PCS-1610 Printer/Copier/Scanner (shared via Samba/CUPS)
• Lorena:  Reads the “news” with Firefox, talks to Mexico on Skype, emails with Thunderbird
• Kelly:  Manages her blogs/facebook/myspace with Firefox, emails with Thunderbird, writes reports with OpenOffice.org, prints recipes and craft projects
• Christian:  Performs administrative tasks when Kelly and Mom cannot figure it out or something is not working
• Dad:  Scans and prepares Betty Blonde comics with GIMP, prepares and prints homeschool schedules with OpenOffice.org

The Dell computer in the bonus room

• Specs:  Intel Pentium, 512M RAM
• OS:  Windows XP
• Internet:  Wireless
• Printer:  Uses printer connected to HP/Ubuntu computer in the living room
• Mass Storage:  MadDog 500Gig external hard drive
• Lorena:  Cleans up the computer table and dusts
• Kelly:  Rosetta Stone Spanish, Teaching Textbooks Math, and CLEP U.S. History II
• Christian:  Rosetta Stone Spanish and adminstration
• Dad:  Nothing

Christian’s Dell Laptop

• Specs:  Pentium Dual Core, 1G RAM
• OS:  Dual boot:  Windows Vista and Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex
• Internet:  Wireless
• Printer:  Uses printer connected to HP/Ubuntu computer in the living room
• Lorena:  Nothing
• Kelly:  Teaching Textbooks, report writing with OpenOffice.org
• Christian:  C++ programming, Inkscape, Administration, Teaching Textbooks Math, GIMP, general experimenting, NerdHow management, etc.
• Dad:  Nothing

Dad’s Dell Laptop

• Specs:  Intel Core Duo, 1G RAM
• OS:  Windows XP
• Internet:  Wireless
• Printer:  Uses printer connected to HP/Ubuntu computer in the living room
• Lorena:  Nothing
• Kelly:  Nothing
• Dad:  Python w/Eclipse (BleAx), C++ w/Visual Studio (Volcano computer), Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP

We will wait until Kelly and Christian to finish with Rosetta Stone Spanish two before we make any big changes.  We plan to turn the HP desktop computer in the living room into a server that will host files and an internet site I want Christian to learn how to manage.  We will add RAM and a better graphics card to the Dell desktop upstairs, install Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope on it and bring it downstairs to replace the HP.  That is about all.

Mom and I are planning a different sort of party for December!  We’re going to have Cookie Exchange for all the ladies in our meeting.  Each person will bring 3 dozen homemade cookies to the party, and we will trade them so everyone gets 5 of each.  We are also planning to have a cookie decorating table, homemade soup and if we’re lucky we might even get a call from Delilah herself!  I’m looking forward to it, but I have no idea what kind of cookies I’m going to make yet. Maybe coconut macaroons or walnut truffles.  I want to make something different than the usual chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin.

I passed my Spanish CLEP practice test 1 today with flying colors! I got 96 out of 120 questions right, giving me a scaled score of 80, or an A. I just need to clean up a few things, study a bit more, and I’ll be great! I am very excited, because if I pass this test correctly, I can get 12 credit hours!  My other CLEP test, the US History one, is a bit more tedious and there is quite a lot more to remember, but I can pass it.  It will just require more studying and concentration than the Spanish CLEP test.  Knowing the language kind of helps. 😀

Also in my plans… I really want to start doing some cooking videos and newsy podcasts soon.  I’ve really been wanting to make kimchi. Dad says we should try some gourmet dishes too.  Maybe in December I’ll start.

I can’t wait for the get-together! I haven’t seen (most of) my friends since convention!!!

Kevin Wilson interviewed Kelly about Betty Blonde for a very nice post he put up on his blog here. I hope he does more of that in the future as it seemed quite professional both in the questions he asked and in the way he introduced the article. Kelly was excited because she thought it might translate into more people signing up for the Betty Blonde daily emailing. We added Kevin’s blog, Uncle Dub’s Rambler to our blog roll.

I finished writing my program that accumulates the scanned panels into a finished comic with a title, by line, copyright, drop shadows, and a thumbnail image. It also uploads the images to my website automatically. It works well on Windows, but I have to make a few adjustments to handle the different directory structure for Linux (and Macintosh, Bryan).  That should not take too long.  Next, I will add the ability to post the daily strip and update the archive. After that, if I am still inspired, I will add the ability manage the daily emailing. It is a good, stand-alone program now, though, and has cut the effort required to administer the daily comic by about two-thirds. I named the program BleAX for Betty Blonde Aggregator of Comix. Catchy name, don’tcha think? If anyone wants to publish their own comic, let me know and I will send out (or post) the program with some instructions on how to use it. Here is a screen shot of the finished program:

BleAx

Update: Andrew, my buddy from work, brought me three Wendell Berry books this morning.  They are Fidelity, Life is a Miracle, and Jayber Crow. I am really looking forward to reading them.

November 30, 2004 – Back in the saddle

Last Saturday I made some fudge and handed it out at meeting the next morning. It was scrumptious, but it did not look like it was supposed to and it was a bit too sweet. I think it was because I added real milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet chocolate chips but that’s OK. The more sugar the better, right?

I’ve been doing very, very well in my school today. I’ve been staying on schedule, catching up on math, and really applying myself. Applying oneself is a hard thing to do though, so I might just help myself to some of that fudge when I’m done. 😉 Yesterday, Dad took Christian and I out for a walk. Walks are very enjoyable when the sky is blue and there’s a nip in the air. You are cold at first, but after you get started you warm up and have fun! Hot summer days were just not made for walking. When you start you’re already warm, so what’s the point in getting warmer? And if it’s humid too… yeesh!

Let’s see.  Today I started a new module in my biology book about ‘The Cell’. It’s been really cool to read things in my biology book that line up with the Evolution book that Dad is reading out loud to us. I know it is not a good thing to argue, but it’s nice to know that I have a reason to believe what I believe if someone ever challenges me.

Well, not much is going on again. I’m still working on my petite, blue, polar fleece pig. I will post up a picture when I am done with it. Also, I’m sorry for all these short paragraphs. I have no idea how to limit myself. 😀 I’ll have to start paying more attention to how I format these blog posts!

We went for two walks around the neighborhood this weekend. We have walked one day on the weekend for the last little while and have decided that two is even better than one. We see the last fall colors. The air is crisp. This is just a great time of the year to get out of the house and walk in North Carolina. We went for our walks because we spent quite a bit of time holed up in the house to catch up on homeschool. We mostly accomplished that. I think the only items left are one math assignment for Christian and some math corrections for Kelly. My plan was to get started on some radio stuff, but when I looked at the schedule, I realized that we have one more book to read that goes with the Biology Kelly is studying this year and that Christian will study next year. At the same time I purchased Explore Evolution, I also purchased Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language. by William Dembski and Sean McDowell.  We really need to read that while the Explore Evolution material is fresh in our heads, so we will push out the radio work until toward the end of this year or the start of the next.

Lorena and I went to a company party on Saturday afternoon.  It was very nice.  The company hit some milestones that we wanted to celebrate, so our CEO made up some gumbo and invited us all over to his home.  It was nice for Lorena to connect faces with the people about whom I speak with her every day after work.  It really was a pleasant affair as such events go.

November 29, 2004 – Thanksgiving report
November 24, 2004 – Christian in Newspaper!!! (photo)

We are about half way through the book Explore Evolution. We are also about half way through The Trumpeter of Krakow. I had mentioned previously that we read a chapter from both a fiction book (from Kelly’s Sonlight series of books) and a non-fiction book. We are just now getting control of our studies after the trip to Mexico, so we want to start back to work on projects and studies we have had on the back burner. In particular, we want to start our study of electronic broadcast. We have Broadcast Voice Handbook, Sound and Look Professional on TV and the Internet, a couple of books on amateur and commercial radio licensing, and a radio kit for Christian and I to assemble (Kelly is less interested in the technical elements of all this). We will start the Broadcast Voice Handbook as our non-fiction read-aloud after we finish Explore Evolution. We will start studying for the amateur radio license test after Kelly finishes her Spanish CLEP test and Christian finishes his Freshman English Composition CLEP test. Christian and I will try to get set up to start the radio assembly this Saturday.

I made great progress on my Python program that builds up a comic strip and puts it up on our web-server. The part that does the image processing and FTP uploading is already complete. I got the main structure of the GUI built that allows a user to input the source image directory, title, author, number of panels, and the FTP site information, then create and upload the comic and thumbnail. There is still a little bit of debugging required and the display of the completed images, but that should not take me too long. It has been a super fun and interesting exercise that has helped me come up to speed with both the Python programming language and the wxWindows/wxGlade cross-platform GUI toolkit.

November 23, 2004 – Homeschool slowing, linux, and the dentist
November 22, 2004 – Preparing for Thanksgiving