DC Journal

Today I begin my tribute to the top 25 labels I used in the first 300 posts of Home School Dad. It is also Saturday, so I'll try to get my six words in edgewise.


Label # 20 (in a seven place tie): Washington D.C. Trip





When the family got together and decided to create a dream come true, (There's a song there somewhere, the dream in this case was our trip to Washington D.C) I decided to keep a journal of the trip and then post those entries here once I returned.

For a writer, I am a horrible journal keeper. I usually miss a day by the third entry or am going back to fill it in on a later date. Besides the night I fell asleep journaling, I was able to complete each entry before the day in question was in the books.

In terms of posting these entries here, I am very faithful to my original work. While I add pictures and sometimes videos from the day in questions and will correct grammar and spelling (not that you'd notice), I fight off the urge to turn a phrase differently than when pen first met paper, and try to stay true to the moment.


Today I am up to Day 8, our last day of sightseeing before we started driving back home.


Before I start, here are my Six Words:



Take a picture, it lasts longer.









Washington Trip: Day 8



Day 8 started like it might eclipse Day 7 as best day of the trip. I woke up at 4:45 A.M. and drove with Claire, the woman our family has been staying with, into D.C. We got to the tidal basin about 40 minutes before sunrise.


I took pictures from a bridge that overlooked both the Jefferson and Washington monuments and the Potomac river. It was an awesome sunrise among the cherry blossoms. I snapped picture after picture and even without a tripod or a really good camera, I took some breathtaking photos.

At about 7:30, i walked to the Washington monument and got in line to get tickets to go up the monument. I waited two hours just to find out that they had run out of tickets. I then met my family and my sister's family at the National Aquarium.

Most of the museum here at D.C. are free and huge. The aquarium went the other way, expensive and small. After that we spent a few hours at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Saw some real cool exhibits for both adults and children.




We went to the Julia Child exhibit and many others.

We then walked in the almost 90 degree heat to the tidal basin. The petals on the cherry trees were gorgeous. We the walked back to my sisters car and headed back to her house. We ate pizza at Kathy's and visited for a few hours before making our leave. We prepared for our return trip home and called it a night.

So that is it for my look at a label, I will finish the trip this coming week. For more Six Word Saturdays head on over to showmyfacedotcom.

Next Time: Men's Monday Meme

Hitting 300

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what-nots of Home School Dad.


Tonight's Episode: I'll Take Labels for 300.


I started this blog back in January of 2009. It took me less than 6 months to hit 100 posts. Click here or on my 100th post page to harken back to that time. 4 and a half months later I came in with post #200. Now, I have hit my 300th post.


I have labeled those posts with 71 distinctive labels. A label is a way of indexing the blog, so that it is easier to look up older posts by topics. A post can have many different labels at the same time. Today's post has 3: Blah Blah Blogging (Which is how I describe when I post incessantly about inane blogging practices), Blog Insider (where I talk about different gadgets, apps and tools I utilize) for this blog, and Posting in the Hundreds (Where I commemorate my posts that have multiples of one hundred). In a sense, all of these labels are very similar and there is a degree of overlapping in my labels.

If I could direct you to the label section of my blog you will see that instead of all 71, I have only 26 listed. This is because in celebrating my blogging longevity I plan to post about my 25 most popular labels in the weeks and months to come. There are 26 because there was a 7-way tie for 20th place. Instead of making a label for these labels, which would seem superfluous, I will be creating a page that will link to these homage posts. Until I have completed all of these I will have the label list show only the top 26.

Not listed in the top 25 are some of my favorite labels like: Hockey Lessons, An Open Letter, A Poem and FAQs of Life. But the 25 labels listed do give a pretty good insight to the kind of blog this has been the past year and a half. I hope you will enjoy the closer look behind the blog in the posts to come.

I plan to finish my D.C. trip remembrances before unpacking these labels, but as usual, prepare yourself for the randomness which is me.

As I bring this post to a close, I just want to give you links to my favorite posts of 4 labels that just missed the top 25:

Amy Roller Guest Blogger with Trudi's Garden.

Awana Scouts featuring Turtle Cake is Best.

The Labels Lincoln and Our Kid's Write are both featured in the post: In praise of Home School Kid's Write.

Next Time: Washington D.C. Day 8

Frogs and Toads and Friends

As my loyal readers know our family loves libraries. One of the things I love most about them are the presentations they have for kids. This past Saturday Randy Korb, a wildlife educator and author came to our library with a live frog demonstration for kids. He brought in many samples of amphibians native to our area.

Mr. Korb told the story of Blinky, a frog who got hit by a car. His grandson found him and brought it to him and now Blinky makes the rounds with Mr. Korb as an ambassador for frogs.

In addition to Blinky, There were salamanders,



newts,

small frogs,

and big frogs.

It was an informative presentation and very hands on. Sometimes it was even frogs on, as this video will attest.

Charlie and Emma loved every minute of the presentation. Especially when the show was over and they made a presentation of their own.

Next Time: Hitting 300

Randy Korb travels through the Midwest 3-4 times a year with his live frog & monarch butterfly presentations. Learn more about what he does at stcroixwildlife.org.

Jefferson and Washington at Sunrise.

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Next Time D.C. Trip Day 8

One inning down eight more to play

A baseball season is a pretty long time. In order to put it in perspective, I put it in bite size chunks. The 162 game schedule lends itself to dividing it up in these chunks. In the past I have thought of it in 6 segments of 27 games each. This has been pretty easy to do as the season is spread over 6 full months (April to September) and each team plays around 27 games each month. This year I am dividing the season into 9 18 game units. I have done this, because baseball games are divided into 9 segments called innings.

I will now analyze the Chicago White Sox in their first 18 games. I hope to breakdown the Cubs and the leagues themselves in the next few posts.

When 7-11 and the Sox decided to end their affiliation with each other this year regarding their starting times (The past two seasons they vegan their home nights games at 7:11. I didn't think it was because they were going to start sponsoring their record. Yet, after the first 18 games the ChiSox find themselves at 7-11 and not for the Slurpees!

The Sox started the season out with a beautiful 6-0 slaughter of the Cleveland Indians at home they then dropped the next 4 games (two to the Tribe and Two to the Twins) before beating the Twinkies to end their initial 6 game Home Stand. It looked as if the White Sox were getting back on track after splitting 4 games in Toronto where they had not won for years. Unfortunately, they left Toronto on a losing note and then got swept by the Indians in Cleveland. The Sox came home on the right note beating the Tampa Bay Rays then dropping the next 2 games to them. They ended their first inning of the season with back to back walk off homers against the Seattle Mariners bringing them to a not very respectable 7 and 11.

Here are a few reasons Sox fans should be concerned.

• In their first 13 games the White Sox sustained 2 four game and 1 two games losing streaks while only putting up back to wins on 2 occasions.
• The Sox are second last in the AL in Hits, last in doubles and last in batting average.
• The Pale Hose did not win their first series of the Season until April 24th. As of that date they have won 1 series tied 1 lost 4 including being swept once.

Here are a few reasons no one should jump off the ship quite yet:

• It's still early! 18 games does not a season make.
• Every team has one or two bad patches a season. There is something to be said about getting one out early.
• The Sox are tied for first in the American League in Home Runs and Stolen Bases. They are tops in the AL in Strikeouts.
• The Sox generally play well against the AL Central where they are now an awful 2-7. They have yet to play the Tigers and Royals who have they fared well against in seasons past. There is every indication they will play near the .550 mark they have had in the Central over the past two season. The Sox are currently above .500 against the rest of the league. If they can maintain that while they catch up in their own division, there is hope they can get right back in this.

I'll be back in 18 more games to give you a second inning synopsis.

How I feel about getting older

I discovered a new meme recently. It is called the Men's Monday Meme. It is at Families Again which was the winner of the 2009 HSBA for best Home School Dad blog. To see how I really feel about losing that particular award to him, go to my website I'mnotbitter.aargh!


Each week he asks a question or two on a topic. This week's question:

How do you feel about getting old? Do you relish it? Hate the thought? Are you somewhat scared?


Old is a relative term. When I was 23 years old and essentially beginning college, I felt old. I was around 17-21 year olds and while those ages remained the same year after year, mine just grew until I was 27, graduating with people 5 years my junior. When I was 32 and in seminary I didn't feel old at all. In fact I quickly realized what a pup I had been during my college years. Sure there were plenty of seminary students 10 years younger than me, but there were plenty who were 10 or more years older than me.

One thing that remained constant in my 20's into my 30's was that my body was in pretty good shape. Now that I am 45 I am having trouble with most parts of my body. 45 definitely feels different than 30.

In many ways I like my age. At least I like the stage of my life that I am in. I think kids keep you younger. My oldest child will be entering 6th grade in the fall and my youngest kindergarten the fall after. That means by the time Lucy is a senior in high school I will be 60. I did some math the other day and realized that when my Dad was my age I was graduating high school. I did a little more math and figured that when my Mom was my age my older sister was graduating college.

One thing about age is that it can be used as a measuring stick for accomplishments. When I was in my late teens early 20's I thought I would be married by the time I was 25. It's a good thing I didn't because I didn't meet Amy until a few weeks before my 26th birthday and marring her at 25 may have been rushing things a bit. I married her when I was 33 because that was God's timing.

When I did marry Amy, I started calling her my wife of 65 years. When you want to spend a lifetime with someone, you want that lifetime to last as long as possible. We just celebrated the 12th of those 65 years. Next year I'll be at the one fifth mark when we hit lucky number thirteen.

God gives us no guarantees on how many days he has in store for us. I am looking forward to spending a long life with Amy, our kids and any future family member He has in store for us. Growing older might not be all it's cracked up to be, but growing older with them certainly is.

For more of the Men's Monday Meme click here.

Next Time: Jefferson and Washington at Sunrise.