O is for Oreos

It has been a while since I participated in Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Tim. So I thought I'd give it a try.  If you are not familiar with Friday Fragments, last week's offering is very typical of the genre: a few short fragments of posts that don't have any cohesiveness or unity.  I am also doing A to Z blogging this month, so my first fragment will be a thing that begins with the letter N.  This is in keping to my A to Z theme of nouns

Fragment 1: O is for Oreo.

When I was a kid there were sandwich cookies like the kind my parents brought at grocery store and then there were Oreos.  Boy were they different!  The sandwich cookies didn't look like Oreos,  hey didn't separate like Oreos and they sure didn't taste like Oreos. Oreos were reserved for special occasions because the store brand cookies sure didn't cost as much as Oreos.

Boy have things changed! These days store like Target and Aldi have their own brands of sandwich cookies.  We call them Fake Oreos.  They still don't cost as much as Oreos, but I am happy to report that they look like Oreos, separate like Oreos, and they even taste like Oreos.

Fragment 2 K-Love Pledge drive

Our family really enjoys listening to Christian music and the station K-Love is often on in our car as we drive back and forth through that thing called life.  A few times a year they have a pledge drive.  I have a strange sense of humor, and like to over analyze things.  So I pulled my vlog Dave Out Loud out of mothballs and made this video about K-Love and the pledge drive.

Pledge drive, in all seriousness has been fantastic this year.  God is doing so many wonderful things just through people listening and giving to the station.  To give K-love a listen click here..

Fragment 3: Age of Ultron

I was looking through some old posts this week and I came across this one (also a Friday Fragment post) from 4 years ago entitled I thought Super Hero Movies wer for kids.  Just like the fake  Oreos situation,  things have got better for kid-friendly super hero .  Since I wrote that movies like Thor, Captaian America, and Avengers have produced movies I enjoy and will allow my kids to watch and love.  Avengers 2 comes out in 14 days and  a majority of our family is psyched.  Here's a short featuette that came out on youtube yesterday ...



Fragment 4 Imago Film Festival

I promised before the A to Z challenge started to tell more abot ut my experiences at this year's Imago Film  Festival.  Here is the trailer for Believe Me, a film I saw at the festival.



That's all the fragmments we have time for today. Go back to whence you came by clicking on A to Z Or Friday Fragments we have time for today.

Friday Fragments: Kid's Update

It's Time once again for Friday Fragments.  Since I have not said a lot about the kids.  Here's  1 fragment a piece about them.

Before I do, let me just say that Friday Fragments, aside from being a part of your balanced breakfast is brought your way from Half Past Kissin' Time.  Click here for this week's installment.

Kid 1 -  Audition Edition

Bunny surprised us a few weeks ago when she showed some interest in trying out for a local production of Seussical: The Musical.  She worked hard  practicing her audition piece with my Mom.  I suggested she sing Suppertime from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown as she was often  singing it at home.

About  150 children auditioned for a cast that will be about 80.  Whether she makes it or not we are very proud of the effort she put forward.

Kid  2 - Army Surplus

Spider Droid continues to be very creative and 100% boyish.  Here is a video he made yesterday.  If you know any 8- 12 year old boys  who would like to watch this please send them the link on you tube.

Kid 3- A Puppyism

(OF COURSE)

Wolfina FKA Puppy was taking a bath a few nights back when Amy overheard this gem.  Apparently she had just finished washing her toes when she said:

"Step aside fingers there's a new cleanest body part in town, toes."

So those are my family of fragments for the week.

Friday Fragments: Quotes and Isms Edition

Fragment 1: Puppyism

Puppy likes Ramen soup. So much so, she sometimes asks for it for breakfast. Puppy pronounces ramen, robin. She pronounces thanks, hanks. So I didn't really think that she thought they put robin in the soup.  This week Amy described this conversation she had with Puppy.

Puppy: Mommy can I have Robin soup for breakfast?

Amy: Sure. It's ramen soup not robin soup.

Puppy: Ohhhh. (After some thought ) I guess if they put robin in it, it would be more like a stew.

Fragment 2:  Dad or Grandpaism

In The past few weeks two of our families favorite actors have passed away.  First Andy Griffith and then Ernest Borgnine. We generally turn our t.v. off for the summer, but when we heard of Andy Griffith's death we turned the t.v back on and watched a couple episodes from the Andy Griffith show as a tribute.  The next  week when we heard of Ernest Borgnines death, we turned on the television once again to watch him in  the film Marty.

The next day I was at my folk's  house explaining the above to my Mom.  My Dad walked in the room and said "don't watch anything with me in it this week."

Fragment 3:  Quote

"If Christians would run more programs like Safe Families,  DCFS would be put out of business. " -the director of the Illinois Department of Family and Child Services to Dr. David Anderson Executive director of Lydia Homes and creator of the Safe families program.

For More info about the Safe Families program click here.

That's all the fragments for today.  For more Friday Fragments head back to Half Past Kissin' Time.

Fragments of rants, thoughts, and feelings.

Fragment 1: Stupid is a swear word in our family.  It is not a word that we want our kids to use nor  do we use it ourselves. It's a crippler.  And it's everpresent.  Consider these lyrics from the beginning of Book Report from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown:

"Peter Rabbit is a stupid book about a stupid rabbit who steals vegetables from other people's gardens."

Be that as it may, stupid things fascinate me.  I don't mean that I am fascinated by things that nobody else finds interesting.  That is true.  I am very random, and the oddest things do strike my fancy.  What I mean is the nonsensical things that people say and do fascinate me.  Nonsensical is a kinder gentler way of saying stupid.

Before, I continue with fragment 1, let me digress. This whole introduction to fragment 1, is a fragment to itself.  So let's call it a prefragmenace (part fragment part preface). 

At the 4th of July parade I described in my last post, I saw one illustration of the nonsensical.  It was a sign that a man was carrying in the above picture.  I have isolated the sign below.

The reason why I think this sign is stupid nonsensical is mainly because it doesn't make sense.  Voting independent will not end fascism for a number of reasons. 

Fascism is defined at dictionary.com as  a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

So A,  if the U.S. was a fascist state, this mans opposition  and criticism of it would be forcibly suppressed. 

B, our governments checks and balances and our current 2 party system and free elections  show that we have no dictator leading us. 

C, voting independent will not necessarily keep us from a fascist state.  Imagine a fascist running as an independent.  His plan to get in power and become a dictator. Voting independent in that case would actually put a fascist in office rather than remove one from office.

Fragment 2:  Not  all isms are Puppyisms.

Bunny Girl just walked into our bedroom and said that she was thinking and when she was done thinking she began thinking credits.   Then she walked out. 

Fragment 3: Obligatory heat wave post.

It's been hotter than heat itself for the past week or so.  It is 10:30 at night and the temp have finally dipped to 85 degrees.  It was 104 at 3:00 when we left the swimming pool  I am not sure how I feel about these real feel forecasts.  It is 85 now, but it feels like 95.  Who cares how it feels? What's next  if were at work at 2:00 in the afternoon but it feels like 5:00 in the afternoon, are we supposed to leave for the day?  It's anarchy I tell you.  And if there's anarchy, can fascism be far behind?

For more fascism free fragments head back to half past kissing time. 

Our Summer So Far (In Fragments)

We have been up to a lot already this summer.  Today I thought I would express it in fragments.  Videos and photos of the first few weeks of the summer.

Fragment V1  - Spider Droid Shoots and Jumps

Fragment P1 -  Bunny and Dad Bike

Fragment V2 - Kite Flying Fun

Fragment P2 A Hike in the Woods

Fragments P3 & V3  - Puppies and Dolphins Unite

Fragment P4 - Volunteering at an Outdoor Food Pantry

Fragments P5 & V4 - More Fun at the Pool

That is all the photos and footage I have for now.  Hope your summers are fun also.  For More Friday Fragments stop over at Half Past Kissing Time.  

Blogging A to Z FAQs and a Puppyism

April was my first foray (actually I only wrote one a post not four) into the Blogging A to Z Challenge.

Today, I am going to tell you a few reflections about my experience there, Since it is now 12:00 a,m Friday which as you know is Half Past Kissing Time, I will give these reflections in fragment form. I will do this in Frequently Asked Question format, since I haven't done a FAQ's of Life segment ever so long

FAQ/Fragment # 1 What was it like?

A to Z was fantastic, fun and frenetic. It was also several words that don't begin with the letter F, but I was on a roll. Starting Sunday April the first and ending Monday April the thirtieth with the exception of the subsequent Sundays, I blogged about a word beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. I did this in alphabetical order, because that's the kind of guy I am.

FAQ/Fragment # 2 Did you plan ahead or just fly by the seat of your pants?

yes. The first few weeks were planned out ahead of time and many were written days in advance as I knew I would be very busy the first few days of April. After about mid month, I still had a few letters I was planning on doing, but many I decided the word and wrote the post just hours before the end of that day. I was also very busy the last few days of the month and that's the only time I got into major panic mode?

FAQ/Fragment # 3 What was your most unusual experience with the A to Z challenge?

My wife Amy sometimes will write an unsolicited post for me, as me. Often these are jokes, to get a reaction from me. Many of those never make it to the light of day. Sometimes, she will write something very poignant as me, often saying my thoughts better than I could. Well for the letter O, she did a post for me, as me. This post got more views than any of my other A to Z posts. The unusual thing is that it was called Original.

FAQ/Fragment #4 What was your greatest challenge with the challenge?

I dropped my laptop about two thirds through the challenge. I have still not gotten it back. This really created many problems with getting the challenge done.

FAQ/Fragment #5 How would you compare Blogging A to Z with NABLOPOMO?

NABLOPOMO is something that I've never really enjoyed. I have participated in it three times, completing it twice. The first time, I did it was my second month of blogging. It nearly ended my blogging career before it got off the ground. I was able to complete it again a year or so later, it was less stressful but not very fun for me.

Blogging A to Z was fun. I enjoyed following other blogs. I enjoyed getting more readers and more comments. I really enjoyed getting Sunday's off. Even with my busy April schedule, and my computer mishaps, I would definitely Blog A to Z again. Next year I might even enter from more than one of my blogs.

For more A to Z Blogging experience reflections click here.



Fragment # 6 Puppy on the Wagon

Today, technically yesterday, while the bigs (my name for our oldest 2 kids) were running an errand for me, I told puppy I would take her on a wagon ride.

Here's a snippet of conversation as I started getting ready to leave the house.

Me: Hey Puppy are you ready for our walk?

Puppy: I'm not walking, I'm riding.

Me: That's right. I'm walking and you're riding.

Puppy: You're exercising and I'm restercising.

For more Friday Fragments click here.

Alphabetical Fragments (and a Puppyism)

 AS IN FRIDAY

Last week,I announced I would probably not be  participating in the next few editions of Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time.  My reasoning was that with 26 posts to write in 30 days time, I would probably not want to waste any of my ideas by consolidating them into fragment form. 

So, why am I here?  Well,quite simply, it is because  Friday and Fragments both begin with today's letter (which by the way is F).  I could not resist.  So, I decided to share with the Friday Fragments community some fragments regarding blogging A to Z.

Blogging A to Z, simply put is a blogging challenge.  You choose 26 words, one from each letter of the alphabet.  The fun started this Sunday and excluding the remaining Sundays of the month of April the alphabetical posts will continue until Z on April 30th. 

1,852 blogs signed up to participate at the A to Z Home Page. Many participants, like myself, are just making random posts using a different letter each time.  However, many blogs are centering their entries on a theme.

For my fragments this week, I have chosen 5 participating blogs that are sporting a theme and will provide a link to one of the entries they have already contributed.

ALPHA FRAGMENT A:

The first blog is right before mine in the list of participants.  Kimberly of Meetings with my Muse has an alliteration theme.  Each day she shares an alliterative sentence or two featuring  the letter of the day, and then opens up her comments for submissions.  At the end of the month she will be giving some amazon gift cards to some of the best submissions.  Here is her A post.

ALPHA FRAGMENT B

The next blog, is the Star Trek Science Blog. I believe it is the only blog on my blogroll that is participating in the challenge. It is also, I believe, how I found out about Blogging A to Z.  Oddly enough, they have a Star Trek them for their submissions.  I really enjoyed B is for Boothby, I hope you do as well.

ALPHA FRAGMENT C

One of my mini goals for this month is to visit 740 of the participating blogs.  This is because I am the 371st blog on the list.  So by looking at all 370 ahead of me and the first 370 after me I would get to 740.  I found Words and Pictures  while working my way back from 741.   The pictures, for this month anyway, are moving ones.  Yes, each day she posts about a movie.  This Tuesday, she wrote about Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

ALPHA FRAGMENT D

The next blog is one of the first 5 blogs listed at the main page.  Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough is basing all his posts on what is called the Goldilocks Zone.  I think this refers to the parts of this vast universe that will sustain human life.  I have found his articles very enlightening and encouraging.  I present D is for Distance. 

ALPHA FRAGMENT E

I actually found this next blog through the previous blog.  Stephen, perhaps in his role, as a co host of Blogging A to Z, gave a shout out to the Blog Gospel Driven Disciples.  I checked it out and Greg is blogging about the people, places and words of the Bible.  On Thursday he wrote E is for Eve.

AND A PUPPYISM

I usually can't get through a Friday Fragment session without a puppyism.  This is because Puppy can't usually go a day without a shareable nugget.  This morning I handed her math book and told her to go into her work department and I'd be right there to help her with it.  She looked at the assignment and started panicking.  "Subtraction!"  I can't do subtraction."  I told her to bring the book to the work department and I'd help her when I got there.  After I got Spider Droid started with his math I walked over to Puppy and saw that she had already started.  I asked her if she needed help with her subtraction and she said "no, this is just minusing."

That's all the fragments I have for today.  For more Friday Fragments click here.  For more  blogging A to Z click here.  Thanks for stopping by and make sure you come back here  tomorrow.  I don't want to give away anything.  I just want to state that I will be putting in my 25 cents worth.  In the radio biz, that's what we call a tease. 

Home School Fragments (and a Puppyism)

Half Past Kissing Time presents Friday Fragments.  Today I will share some Home School info that might not otherwise make it into it's own post.

SB 136 footnote.

Last year a state senator from Illinois made a name for himself in the homeschooling community by proposing that all home schools and private schools would need to be registered on the state level.  The proposed bill showed no understanding of Illinois  state law.  One reason for this is that Home schools in Illinois are considered private schools.  That means that the wording of the bill was redundant because  merely requesting that all private schools register would require home educators to do the same.  Alas private schools were never really the target of the bill and the wording was quickly changed to refer only to home schools.

The senator Ed Maloney introduced the bill and there was an instant reaction of the negative kind.  Home Educators after flooding their representatives with phone calls,  stopped what they were doing and headed to Springfield in the thousands to discuss the bill.  Ed Maloney was never able to give sufficient proof that homeschoolers were "falling under the cracks" and the bill was tabled without ever being voted on.

I wrote several pieces on the matter here and have become very interested in the career of senator Maloney.  He has decided not to seek reelection.  I did some research and found that one of the candidates running to replace him states that she is a  strong supporter of homeschooling at her campaign website.  Thanks again Mr. Maloney for bringing the people of your district a potential advocate to the institution you sought to alter.

Speaking of Frivolous Laws

One of the main reasons I opposed SB 136 besides the total lack of need to "fix" something not broken was the additional cost to taxpayers in doing so.  This is one of the reasons why I am opposed to SB 3259 which is a bill being considered to raise the compulsory school age in Illinois from 17 to 18.  The law is sponsored by Kimberly Lightford and co-sponsored by 6 other senators from her party.  Lightford like Maloney and 4 of the 6 co-sponsors received significant campaign funding from teachers unions.  I mention this because teachers and their unions are the direct beneficiaries of this law as more teachers will need to be hired if the age is increased. 

I am opposed to the bill for 5 reasons.

1. The proposed law will not be able to do what it says it will as there is no proven correlation between dropout rates and compulsory age.

2. It should be the job of parents and not the government to decide when their children should end their schooling.

3. By my reading it seemss the law would require home educators of 18 year olds to register with the state; and I think we all know how I feel about that.

4.  While the law would benefit teacher and unions and not neccesarily the students it purport to help (see objection 1) it would increase the tax burden of parent affected by the law.


5. It is a law that was conceived by lawmakers who didn't even consult with school superintendents to see if a law was needed.  There was also similar lack of reasoning for Sb136.  It has been told that Senator Maloney conceived SB136 after learning of a homeschooling relative while at a Holiday party.  Our tax dollars are certainly at work.

Mount Rushmore

I am teaching 2 classes about the Mount Rushmore Presidents at our home school co-op.  If you wanted to teach about one object in American History that encompasses more time than Mount Rushmore you might be hard pressed to do so.

The history of Mount Rushmore and the presidents thereof, goes back to the colonial period prior to the French American war and goes though to Depression Era works projects.  This has been a very enjoyable process for me and hopefully my students as well.

Non Home School Related Puppyism

Puppy sometimes pretends she's a wolf named Wolfina.  Just like when she used to play with pretend puppies on the bed she now brings pretend wolves everywhere she goes. 

On Wednesday we were visiting my Dad who is recovering nicely from a very successful prostate cancer surgery.  On the way home Puppy was sitting in the back seat and we had this conversation:

Puppy/Wolfina: Dad I left one of my wolves at Grandpa's house. 
Me: One of your Pretend wolves.
P/W: That's okay we don't have to get it.  He likes it there.

The funniest thing about the exchange was the was that Puppy said her last line as if I had fully intended to turn around and get the missing wolf.  When actually at about the same time she asked we had just passed a gas station selling it's wares at $4.52.9 a gallon.  (I had only paid $4.39.9, so that's a relief.

Well that's that for Fragments for this week and probably for a while.  I am participating in Blogging A to Z starting Sunday and if I think of a fragment idea, I will probably figure out what letter it starts with and share it on it's given day.

For more fragments click here.

Pandora and other Fragments

It is time once again .  Yes Half past Kissing Time and time for Friday Fragments. 

1.  I heart Pandora.

I have a very eclectic taste in music.  Show tunes, Pop, Rock, Christian, folk, country.  You name it I like it.  I don't even mind listening to many genre's at the same time.  That'w why I like Pandora.  I have about 50 different channels and when the mood strikes me, I hit the shuffle option and get my eclectic on .  This is what I am listening to right now.  I can go from that to Under The Sea from Little Mermaid.  (Which, incidentally just happened.) From there maybe Bowling For Soup or Barry Manilow to Bing Crosby or Puppy's favorite, JJ Heller.   This musical journey may contine with music from Journey or the musical saga may continue with The Saga Begins by Weird Al.  Like I said, eclectic.

Sure, I could do and  do the same thing with my IPod and Itunes.  But, the songs I listen to, I have to own.  With Pandora it often plays songs I not only don't own but am sometimes not even aware of.  I just listened to 5 O'clock world by the Vogues from my Beach Monkeys(Beach Boys and Monkees are the seed artists)  channel on Pandora.  I may have heard it before on an oldies stattion but I would never be able to ask for it by name.  That's why I like the music genome project employed by Pandora.  It takes what you like and plays music similar to it.

2.  A to Z coming soon.







Earlier this year I joined up for the A to Z blogging challenge for this April. March is 1/2 way over and I hope I am up to the task of 26 letters in 30 days. We get each Sunday off except the first Sunday, which is the first of April. It seems a little NABLOPOmish to me. Click here to review my love/hate with Nablopomo. I don't have a theme or even a plan yet. But I do have a little inkling of a system. I love systems, so it may still work.

Here is a cool promotional video for the event.



3.  I owe I owe so back to blog I go. 

I am so behind in my blogging for promotional items  I have received.  There is a math program that Spider Droid and I used last month that I need to write a review of.  There are almost a half dozen books I received that I owe reviews for.  Hey I think that's a good future Friday Fragment post!
I also owe the host of Home Spun Juggling a review of her fabulous book of cartoons. 

Bunny did  her own review of this fine Tome of Homeschool wit and wisdom.  So in lieu of my  review here is a link to hers.  Hopefully, I'll catch up soon.

4. It's not a test, it's Iowa

Did you ever take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills? I did a few times as a kid.  I really enjoyed it, because it was a day or 2 off from the routine of regular school.  I also brake for scantron.  Next week I will be proctoring an Iowa Test for a bunch of home school kids.  Spider Droid and Bunny will be among those taking the test.  I will spend the next few days of school just getting them  familiar with the world of testtaking in a classroom setting.

I'm not out of fragments but I am out of time.Click here   For more fun filled fragments of Fridaytude.

Friday Fragments

Fast Fragments.

Fragment 1: Amy and I will be out the door in a few minutes to work a Compassion table together at the Rock & Worship Roadshow Concert. I am looking forward to  time away from those snotty kids of mine spending some time ministering with my wife.

We have been Compassion sponsors for a few years now, I have not really blogged much about it before.  In the future, I will be blogging more about Compassion and their ministries around the world.  If you have any interest in finding out more about supporting a child through compassion, click here.

Fragment 2:  Our library has a serious backlog when it comes to use of the display case in the children's department.  It wasn't always this way.  Spider Droid and Bunny displayed their collections 1 or two months after signing up.  Puppy signed up last Spring, and was told that there wasn't a  month available to display her Pillow Pets and Webkinz until April 2013.

This Monday, we got a call from the director of the children's section of the library.  The  scheduled February presenter was no longer interested in displaying their collection.  (Keep in mind they probably signed up in 2009 or 2010).  Puppy was called in to be a last minute replacement.  I am not sure how she leap frogged the 13 people in front of her.  It may well be that since we are such fixtures at the library, they knew we could get the collection to them by the first.  Which we did.

Fragment 3: 

Last year Spider Droid and I had a blast at Monster Jam.  We are going to go again this year.  Tomorrow I will be posting a give-a-way here and on my FB   &  Twitter pages.  You can win 4 tickets to the Friday February 10th show in Rosemont, Illinois.  

Stay Tuned.

Those are my fragments and I am sticking to them.

For more Friday Fragments click here. 

Fragments of photos Ipod Edition

I am at a waiting room, cleaning out the pictures from my i-pod.  many of them were for blog posts that I haven't quite got to yet.  So here's a few fragments about them.

Photo Fragment 1

That's no majestic sunrise/sunset.  It's just a lamp post over spider droid working on snow board moves on his sled.

Picture Fragment 2

Many libraries offer a read to a dog program.  My oldest kids have done this.  But puppy, our resident dog lover never had before this.  Here she is reading to Samson, who is from a Sox fan family and paid a lot of attention to me because I was wearing my White Sox jacket.

Here she is in action . . . 

Photo Fragment 3

This pic is already on the blog.  I show it here to illustrate that it is generally not much of a problem to get all 3 kids to pose for a good photo.  But when you try to add an adult in, like when Amy and I took the kids to the Brookfield Zoo in late December, you get something like this.

Amy and Bunny look great.  Puppy and Spider Droid look goofy. 

Photo Fragment 4

I lived in Khabarovsk Russia for 2 years in the early  90's. Khababarosvsk is located  on the Amur River.  So when I'm at the zoo I always like to see the tigers and leopards that hail from that region.  Hers is  a picture of an Amur Leopard.  

Well that's enough fragments for one day.  For more fragments, join Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time.

I do, however, have time for one more photo.

NEXT TIME: DARE TO DREAM

Friday Fragments - Promotional Considerations

It is Friday Fragment time again.  This week's fragments all seem to be self promoting.  Oh well, if I were a true narcissist wouldn't tie them all up in one post, I would write them all out separately.

Fragment 1

If you don't follow my vlog Dave Out Loud. (and at this point no one does) you are missing gems like this . . .





Fragment 2

I have just created a resource for quality home school blogs.  It  takes all 20 Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA) categories and features the winner in each category.  I also go behind the scenes and say who I voted for in each category and why as well as sharing a sample post form all 20 winners that I think gives us a good glimpse of their work.

Fragment 3.

Mine is apparently not the only resource throwing bouquets to home school bloggers.  It seem that one of those bouquets was even thrown my way.



Yes Teacher Certification Degrees dot com did a fantastic job compiling 100 Homeschooling blogs and a few honorable mentions.  Here is what they said about HSD:

Dave is the “Home School Dad”, White Sox fan and movie buff whose sense of humor shows in creative nicknames and occasional rants; wife Amy adds her voice as a guest contributor to this lively blog filled with ideas for budget-friendly family fun, reports on Lego robotics action and a fresh perspective from the homeschool front.


Occasional rants! I wonder what they mean by that.  Well, I never.   They have a lot of nerve.

Fragment 4.

Speaking of Robotics . . .

The State Robotics Tournament is tomorrow and Saturday.  Unlike last year, Spider Droid's team will not be participating.  They did great at their regional.  Just not great enough to be one of the 3 teams from a field nearing 20 to make it. 

Here are  some pics from the regional. 

Well those are all the fragments I have for today.  For more Friday Fragments click here.

Friday Fragments

Hi.  It's Thursday night which means it's time for Friday Fragments.  The part of the show where Larry sings a silly song.  I think I might be mixing up my segments, a little. 

Lots O Fragments today.  So let's get to them . . .

Fragment, the first one

First of all, for the past while I have been featuring the 20 winners of the 2011 HSBA (Home School Blog Awards) here at the old blogstead.  Generally I have been doing this at the end of my posts.  For reasons that are too long and too boring (mostly too boring) to go into now, I am going to share two different winners in this here post.

In the category of Best New Home School Blog the HSBA goes to Doorposts of your Home.  Today's post on Honoring one another was so good, I decided share it here as a sample post.

*************************************************************************

Fragment, the next one


My wife and I have been married for almost 14 years.  We have had the same bed for that long and it was time for a new one.  We had a Verlo and we loved it.  So last Saturday we got a new one.  Last Friday in preparing for a new bed I was clearing out some stuff in the bed room and found a really cool picture frame that a friend of my wife's had made for her and for whatever reason we had never put up.  It needed a small amount of repair after years of non use.  Here it is in use on the wall above our computer.

Fragment, The obligatory Puppyism


Sometimes puppy's explanation of her puppyisms are more amusing than the puppyisms themselves.  Take this conversation that took place at the dishwasher after yesterday's lunch. 

Puppy: Dad I'm full to the tip.

Me: Full to the tip?

Puppy:  I'm full to the tip, not even an inch is left.


Fragment, The penultimate one

I bought a new Ipod Touch a few weeks ago and have been using it quite a bit.  One thing that is both good and bad is the amount of pictures you can take in such a short time.  Amy took all these pics of Puppy on the horse at Meijer.  It was like a regular photo shoot.

Can this be the last one please?!!!?

Fragment, The Porky Pig One (That's All Folks)

Well not quite all.  I have one more HSBA winner to bring to the light of Dave. 

That winner is Confessions of A Homeschooler.  This blog has been a staple of my sidebar for sometime now.  It won in the Best Design Category.  This sample post about A Family Mission Statement is very good.

That's it that's all the fragments I have at present. 

Head back to Half Past Kissing Time for more Friday Fragments.

Fragments From a Waiting Room

It is Friday and I am in a waiting room. What am I doing in a waiting room? Waiting, of course. These puppies are perfectly name.



Spider Droid has an appointment so Puppy and I are waiting. Since I have a few minutes I thought I'd participate in Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time.

Fragment 1

I stole this picture from Facebook. My wife and I love the alphabet game. We play it all the time, and have talked about how such a sign would come in very handy. Technically this sign is inefficient. Instead of a Y they should have put a J. There is already a Y in You're Welcome.

Fragment II


I have spent the past few days tweaking the look of this blog. The biggest change is one I made about a month ago when I added a slide show. I figures since I would not be posting much for a while that at least people could get a glimpse of us if they visited. I might make a few more changes in the weeks to come.









Fragment III




One of my new look items is a return to having a quote on my masthead. To see some of the quotes that were there previously just click on my quotable quotes page. Today's quote I heard on K-Love while en route to said appointment. You can hear the quote by watching the devotional below.


Fragment IV

I am collecting state quarters again for the sole purpose of giving them away on my blog. My last State Quarter Give-A-Way was a pretty big deal, and I want to do it again. I have been bringing home a role of quarters each week and am now up to 43 state quarters. When I hit 50, Crazy Dave will make a long overdue appearance.

Well That's all the waiting I have to do today. You won't have to wait long for another post because I have my Six Word Saturday all ready to go. For more Friday Fragments click here.

Next Time: 6 Word HSD Rewind

Joplin Trip Day 3 Part II

This is the ususal time of the week that I participate in the meme Friday Fragments hosted at Half Past Kissin's Time. I have decided to recount Joplin Day 3, Part II in fragment form.

A blog fragment is a piece of info that usually doesn't make it into a traditional post. But if you weave a bunch of these fragments together you can get some pretty interesting stuff. Here we go.

Fragment 1: Church Name Symmetry

While I was waiting at Joplin Family Worship Center between the closing of the clothing tent and the beginning of meals and wheels, I began talking with some people from a church who were distributing Bibles to anyone who wanted them. They had a small table set up right next to where those affected by the tornado signed up to get the kind of materials I mentioned in the last post. The people from that church agreed to give us a bunch of New Testaments that we could offer when we delivered meals. I thought it was really cool because their church was a Bible Chapel and the church that I go to is also a Bible Chapel. This was not the only church name symmetry as the church that lent our team a bus and provided one member to the team is called The Lighthouse. First Christian Church of Carthage who was housing us is also called, wait for it, The Lighthouse.

Fragment 2: Meals on Wheels.

JFWC has a Meals on Wheels ministry. Everyday at 4 p.m they prepare meals for 4 blocks in the tornado area that people are living in and that are accesible by car. They go door to door handing out meals and water. We prepared 40 meals and distributed them.

Fragment 3: There's one in every disaster.

I mentioned yesterday, that all the people I saw being ministered to were receptive to the help. Until we came to the door of an elderly lady who just yelled and yelled at us. I was walking with a bunch of kids and when we came to her door, she knew the drill. Before she even answered she started shouting that she didn't want any food. I asked her very nicely if she wanted some water. She said something like she only used water to wash with, she never drank the stuff. I backed the kids away from her door and she continued to yell at us. She was saying that it was too hot for us to be out (it was 110 degrees) with the kids and we should get them inside. I thanked her and started walking with the kids to the next door. She very loudly said "Fine! Don't listen to me!"

Fragment 4: Who's serving who?

At the same time this heated monologue was taking place, something else was heating up. The vehicle we were in started overheating. We drove it a few more houses and realized what happened. We were running it in 110 degree heat stopping at every house with the AC on. Since there wasn't anthing else for the kids and I to do, we kept walking down the block offering food and water. Many of the houses had no one in them, and often the neighbors would tell us that. We were walking up to one house when the across the street neighbors told us no one was there. I asked them if they wanted any food. They said no but they would gladly take 6 bottles of water.

As we tried to figure out what to do about our vehicle, the family with the six waters came up to us and offered to help us. There was a 91 year old mechanic who lived at that house. He came up to the car which we were able to inch over to their house, and started cooling the radiator down with a hose. We took that job over for him and as we waited, they let the children that were with us cool down in the small pool that some of their children were in. Come on guys, we're here to help you!

We cooled down the car and were able to drive back to Carthage without any problem. We did not have any problem with that car for the rest of the trip,

Fragment 5: An Opportunity

When we got back to the church, the teens on our trip were attending the church youth group. We were told about how the family with the grandchildren were ministering to a man who needed to get his property cleared. His house has been destroyed and he had many family members including his wife pass away shortly before the tornado. We decided that as a team on Thursday night we would work together to get this man's field cleared. One of our elder's grandsons felt compelled to give that man a Bible. I remembered about the Bible Chapel giving Bibles away and said I would get one for him tomorrow.

Fragment 6: This Place is Hopping

I don't remember noticing it Tuesday night when we arrived but on Wednesday night around 9 p.m. all the kids started noticing that the streets and parking lots were teeming with flying grasshoppers, crickets, cicadias and the occasional praying mantis. The kids spent about an hour each night on grasshopper patrol.

At about 10 pm, it was still hot. But probably 100 degrees, rather than 110. So Spider Droid and I walked a few blocks up to the town square. This town square had a clock tower like the one in Back to the Future. After a nice walk, it was time for bed.

For more Friday Fragments, click here. For more Joplin stories, tune in tomorrow.

Friday Fragments Pics & Video Edition

Friday Fragment Time again. I am waiting for a Skype Call from Russia at a little after Midnight on Friday. It is 4:15 p.m on Friday in Khabarovsk where I am expecting the call from. That is a fragment for a different time but explains why I am up so late on a school day.

Just videos and pics in today's fragments.

Fragment 1. Fun at the dinner table





Fragment 2. Baseball at the Zoo

When we go to the zoo we expect to see bears like this . . .


And This . . .

But at the Brookfield Zoo this weekend there were a number of human cubs. Chicago Cub fans like my son, players and former players like Milt Pappas who my sister had on a poster in her room when she was growing up.

I had a cool video linked up of Spider Droid doing a pitching game but I called him by his real name and I can't get the edited version to upload. SPider Droid had fun playing baseball games and we all had fun at the zoo.

Fragment 3: Blue Ribbon Robotics

Earlier last week Spider Droid competed in the Kane County Fair. No pig in competition or anything like that. He participated in a virtual robotics challenge where among other things he completed a cd-ROM curriculum on robotics, entered his findings in a journal, made a PowerPoint presentation including a video (which is really cool but uses his real name are you sensing an overprotective dad theme here?) and made this poster for display at the fair.

He also overcame his shyness and had an interview with the judge where he showed his video and explained what he learned.

The result of all his work: A blue ribbon. For those of you who don't speak County Fair, A blue ribbon is as high as you get w/o being the winner or runner up of the event. We don't speak County Fair so when we saw the ribbon we both thought (me silently, I have some tact) that it was just a participation ribbon. (We both have won those before). It actually means that he met or exceeded all of his objectives. Win, Place or Show we are very proud of his accomplishments.

Fragment 4: Leave them Laughing. (I hope.)



A few hours later back at the dinner table . . .

‪Dave roller finally catches a chip‬‏ - YouTube

For more Friday Fragments drop what you are doing and head over to Half Past Kissin' Time. I have a Skype call to get, so I'll catch you later.