stop, drop, and slap...

So, Wife encouraged me to post this about the girls; if you don't know them, it wont amount to much to you, but the deal is this; the Oldest is so much like Wife it is startling. The interesting thing about that is while many of her traits will be admirable as an adult, some are so very irritating coming from a little girl. She works really hard to get everything "just so" in order to maximize comfort and pleasure.



The Second Oldest is much more like "good old dad" here. Sleeps anywhere, wears anything, and she just cant be bothered with little details that have anything to do with the silly notion of personal comfort. If that means your underwear are on backwards when you pull them on in the morning; hey, no problem... its not worth changing them around, she's got stuff to do!



Then there is the pain vs. fun ration factor for both... Oldest is very sensitive to pain, and wants nothing to do with anything fun if it involves pain, before, during or after (like on her bottom). Second Oldest however, is quite different. I would NOT say that she assesses the situation, and decides to do wrong anyway, even if she gets a spank (that would require forethought), but when it happens, she rarely cries, and just shrugs it off and moves on.



All this is to back up a small story that happened the other night. Some time ago, after being frustrated with the girls perpetually coming out of their bedroom for "something really important to ask you" or "just need a drink"... etc, etc, ad infinitum, they started asking about what legit reasons they could go out of their room for. My response was "Nobody comes out of this room unless you are ON FIRE!!! That is the only reason I want ANYONE to come out of this room!!! Clear?" "Yes-sir, OK Daddy".



OK, so the other night Oldest comes out of her room with "Just one really important question, Daddy". I think that I will just nip this in the bud, turn this evening into a lesson, so I jumped up and told Wifey: "Look out! She's on fire!" (obviously; she came out of her room, you know) Then I picked her up and tossed her on the couch and started slapping the "fire" out from all over her, while hearing screams of "stop it daddy, its not funny, ow www, please stop..." After I stopped, I explained how I was sure she was on fire (she was out of her room) so I must slap the fire out! She was quite unimpressed and turned around and went straight back to bed, upset with me. Heh, Mission Accomplished! I felt pretty darned good about my parenting, I showed her, didn't I? Funny, too, even though she didn't think so.



Just about the time I sat back down and was feeling pretty good about myself, something struck me: I leaned over to Wifwy and said "you know what, we're not done here. As much as she hated that, I bet Second Oldest will be out here for some "fire-slapping"." I no more than said it and the door opens and here she comes with a great big smile on her face, and while I sat there trying not to smile as my little prophecy became true in front of my eyes, she says: "look at me daddy, I'm on fire." And I am here to tell you, the smile hardly faded into winces at all during an intense "fire-slapping".

concerning the last post...

Just a thought, after you study the earlier post, if anyone has any ideas for a digitially programmable thermastat that would regulate (kick on or off) the pump when the water in the boiler reaches a certain temp, so that it doesn't pump cold water through a nice warm floor, I would be glad to hear of it. (cheap, of course, like something scavaged off of an old piece of equipment). And, by the way, the new pump is working great!

Some of you have commented that I've been posting less frequently lately and wondered what i've been up to. I have been pretty busy with the usual stuff, but I will show you with some pictures below of my project I was able to work on with the long weekend. I utilized my extra time this weekend to plumb in my pipe system that I had installed in the concrete basement floor when we built the house, using a boiler system to heat the water pumping throught the pipes in the basement floor.
To do this, I just use the wood/coal burning furnace that I already use (to heat the house) to heat the "boiler" water, so I am not using any extra energy to heat the basement floor, just the extra electricity required to run the pump. If you look closely, I have labeled some things in the pictures. All I need now is a pump that works regularly.

american children

After the trip home from church wed. night; all four of my kids (ages 7 to 1) were either asleep or pretending to be asleep and trying not to smile while faking it. In one of my rare moments of compassion and consideration for my children I decided that i would just go ahead and carry them in whether they were really asleep or not. As I made the fourth trip out to the van after the last child, I had kind of a flashback moment to a similar experience of being carried by my parents my own youth.

I remember the drowsy, delicious feeling of having no real responsibility, even for my very self; that I could just continue to "slump" and that someone would put me where I belonged and I could trust that those in charge would take care of me. Then I realized that the same feeling must of washed over more than half of Americans earlier that same day when they opened their newspapers. Think about it... Subtle, huh?

investors wanted!

So I think I've hit on a hot new money making idea, but I will need a few investors. I need a producer, directer, and a camera crew, a lighting crew (etc) to follow me and "the boys" around while we gutter people's houses. I plan on calling this prime time network television show: "Gutters of the Rich and Famous". This idea was spawned while guttering Ted Turner's personal resort and ranch-house/hunting lodge this morning, after a 3 1/2 hour drive from my shop. I think that after this idea catches on, celebs everywhere will be clamouring to have me gutter their homes. I can see it all now; first Ted, then maybe Oprah, then probably Bill Gates, after that I'm sure Paris Hilton will want on board, then the snowball effect will take place and we will just have to open a branch in Hollywood. I'm also taking applications for strong silent "Lead Men" to hang gutter. I'm thinking George Clooney. Let me know if you have any better ideas.

An important emergency health care option

I just hope that whoever is our next president will bring us up to these rigorous UK health care standards.

just another weekend...

So on mondays, (especially after the gunpower/eyebrow event) the guys at work always ask: "did you have an interesting weekend?" Tomorrow, I will answer; "Not really, just like everybody else's weekend, probably did the same thing everybody did: went to church, watched the kids bury a live chicken,



then a cat; then I dragged up some coal from out back and fired up the old forge

and smelted down some aluminium, (for casting purposes) just like millions of other people most likely did all over the country. Today, I am going to try something different than most, though. Sean and I are going to try to melt copper, which requires an additional 420 degrees Fahrenheit... wish us luck!