Birthday Traditions

It's a certain Spider Droid's ninth birthday I thought I could celebrate it here by telling about a few family birthday traditions.

Technically Speaking

Spider Droid will wear out a phrase every few months. Back this Summer it was technically speaking. Every other sentence would start with technically For example "Technically Speaking Star Wars Episode I was really the 4th episode that came out." If he were here, he might tell you that technically speaking he has only had one birthday is and this is the 9 year anniversary of that birthday.

Almost Birthdays

A relatively new birthday tradition is the almost birthday. It's a pretty simple tradition that is celebrated the day before the actual non technically speaking birthday. Click here to see a video of the almost birthday song.

Birthday Party in Bed

A Roller Family staple is starting the birthday off with cupcakes, singing, and present opening first thing in the a.m. Breakfast is optional. This is done regardless of any other celebrations that may ensue.

The Chuck-E-Cheese Birthday.

The age of 4 is a special year. It is essentially the upperclassmen year of pre-school. When each of our children turned 4 they had a Chuck-E-Cheese Pizza Party. It is special because it was always their first friend party. Our Kids can still be kids but they have all now aged out of their 4 year old rite of passage.

Birdthday Immunity.

All our children were born during the school year. We usually take school off on the Children's birthdays. Sometimes we do a special field trip, sometimes we just stay at home. We Home school, we can roll that way. Technically speaking, we are not taking Spider Droid's birthday off because it is on Monday, our co-op day. However, tomorrow Amy is taking the day off and we are going on a family field trip to the aquarium. The birthday boy is even bringing along 2 friends.

Birthday Shopping.

My wife's Mom takes the kid's out on or near their birthday for a special time of Grandma bonding. They go out to eat and then she takes them shopping to the store of their choice where they can buy a present or two. She even allows them to pick out a little something for the sibs left behind.

The Birthday Pole.

A now multi-generational tradition takes place at my parents house each year. It started when I was a kid at my Grandpa's house. At the visit closest to our last birthday, my grandpa would measure us grandkids on a pole in his basement and then our name and age on a label maker and stick the label where he had marked our height. Being 1 of 29 grandchildren, this was always a special time between me and my grandpa. I am glad my Dad continues this for his grand kids.

Preventing Birthday Spoilers

Our kids get very excited about giving their brother and or sister(s) gifts. So much so that they often spill the beans long before said beans are unwrapped. We do our best tricks to keep that from happening. This year any time the beans were in dang er of spilling, Amy would redirect by saying: Lovely weather we're having.

These are just a few ways that we celebrate birthdays here. I'd love to her how you make family birthdays special. Happy Birthday son, we love you!

There will be a few changes to the ye-olde blog this month. The first one is that I am discontinuing the next time notices for the month. This month my youngest Brother would have turned 40. To honor him in these pages I will be linking to posts I have shared about him in the past. I call it . . . Keith Time.

Today's edition: A Bet I wish I lost.

Six Word Saturday: Video Edition

Six Word Saturday time again brought to you by the courtesy of http://www.showmyface.com/. My Six Words:

I think these videos are great.

Lin Manuel Miranda, the TonyAward winning lyricist recently got married. He invited me to his reception, so to speak, by posting some of it on you tube. My thanks to Why Homeschool? who ran it on their blog a few weeks ago. This is a wonderful video. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks also to Blogging 2 Learn who ran this you tube video on their blog recently. It was a shakesperean rendition of Who's on First. When I watched it on you tube I was directed tot he following who's on First with a home school twist . . .

I hope you liked the videos. Click here for more Six Word Saturday.

Next Time: The Age of Aquariums.

My name is Dave, and I approve this message.

It is just a few days before the midterm elections and even a guy like me who doesn't watch broadcast t.v. and only reads the Sunday paper periodically (It's a periodical, so it's okay.) can be overwhelmed with political messages. Between the print ads I receive in my mail, the phone calls, and radio ads I am besieged with election opinions. I received 8 pieces of mail today, 7 political ads and a circular for Bath and Body Works. If Plumeria were to run for office, I would consider voting for it.

Political advertising turn me off because they are so often negative. Their is also a general absence of talking about the positive things of your of your own candidacy. I received a letter today from a candidate who wanted to complain about the falsehoods and smear techniques his opponent was using against him. The thing is the letter did not really tell me anything good about the candidate or even defend him self against the purported slander. He did however take time to attack his opponent and ask me for money.

My son has even noticed all the negative campaigning. While listening an attack ad the Illinois Republican Senatorial Candidate was running against his democratic opponent. My son just commented, He should just say "My opponent is good, but I'm better."

Many of the mailers I receive comment on the misspending on of those in power. They also comment on the great economic problems in our country and specifically our. state. It got me to wondering how much less debt we would be in if there was a way to use all the money spent on political advertising could actually be used in running the country. Call me crazy.

Like many voters I have pet issues that are more important to me than others. Both candidates for my state representative have come and visited me at house this year and I have told them both that as a home schooling parent like that Illinois has very few requirement for Home Education. I have encouraged them that to keep me happy they should keep it that way. I am also pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-choice, whatever you want to call it. It bothers me that neither of the aforementioned candidates agree with me on that particular subject. That particular race
has no other candidates so I will have to choose on other criteria. This is unfortunate as the pro-life issue is usually the deal breaker with me.

In the Senate race my son was commenting on, neither the Republican or Democratic opponent are pro-life; I have decided to back the Libertarian candidate, who is. I received a phone call Saturday asking if I would be voting Republican in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate and House elections. I explained that I was backing the Republican in the governors race and the House race but explained why I was going Libertarian in the Senate race. The caller responded "that's too bad.". Being a total smart aleck I asked if it was too bad that was voting for 2 Republicans, or if it was too bad I was voting my conscience for Senator. She said that she knew the Republican candidate for Senator and I should vote for him. I reexplained my reasoning in not supporting a pro-choice candidate when there was a pro-life one on the ballot. Her response was that a vote for the Libertarian was really a vote for the Democrat. Our call ended soon after that. What I didn't tell her (not because I'm not a smart aleck, but only because I didn't think of it) was okay I'll vote for the Democrat then.

So those are some political thoughts that have been simmering over the past few weeks. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about religion.

Next Time: Who's Fiddling on the Roof First

Blog Rolling with the Changes

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets and whatnot's of Home School Dad

Tonight's Episode: A Simple way to improve your Blog Roll.

I have been doing a lot of meta-blogging lately. The majority of my posts have been about my blog rather than about stuff that is actually interesting to readers. At least that's my wife's take on it. The other day after reviewing my post about videos, she said in her BMPV (Best Miss Piggy Voice) "I don't understand any of this."

Well, I have good news and bad news for those who agree with her. The good news is that I will soon be posting again about the subjects that made me famous in 3 counties. The bad news is it does not start with this post.

Today, I am going to take up that provocative subject of Blog rolls. A blog roll is a list of blogs that you follow with a link to them. In the past I had always been tweaking my list of blogs on my blog roll. This was due in some part to the fact that I am always finding new blogs I want to share with the world. But it was mainly due to the fact that some of the blogs I follow post so periodically that I wanted to only feature blogs that were more current. It's kind of a publish or perish sort of thing.

This was working out okay, but it meant that every once in a while I had to go back and see if those other blogs had put out anything new lately. Than I happened on a cool way to list only current blogs but not lose touch of the old ones.

On Blogger there is a feature on the blog roll that allows you to limit the amount of blogs that shows on your list. While I now have 50 blogs on my roll, only 25 are listed at any one time. These are the 25 that have posted the most recently. Currently, the 25 listed are all less than a week old.



What I really like about this is when, a someone in the lower 25 posts again it automatically springs up to the top. Some of my favorite blogs post intermittently. Allen Levi's blog essentially went silent after his 7 songs in 7 days this past August. But every couple of months he puts something on and I will be one of the first to know. Out Walking took a bit of a summer sabbatical but is now putting up his usual 1 -2 provocative pieces a week. With my new system, he came back to my attention without my having to search for him. I mentioned the blog, Rocks in My Dryer when talking about Works for Me Wednesday last week. She hasn't posted since July, But if and when she comes back I (and my readers) will know about it.

Now it is essentially true I could do the same thing just by subscribing to these blogs. Yes, and no. I like having what I like available for everyone to see. This method works much better for me. If you go through my blog list and do not see a blog you have seen before. Click on the See All button below the last blog on the list. It is very likely you will find it there.

So now that I have proved once again that Boring is just not a suburb of Portland, I will wrap up this look at the making of the making of this blog.

Next Time: An Unpaid Political Pronouncement.

Blogging the Days of the Week Part III

It started with Works for Me Wednesday. That for a long time was my favorite meme. 3 Things This Thursday came along and soon became my favorite. Then Six Word Saturday came into my life and became my new favorite.

Here are six words to describe what I like most about this colorful meme hosted each week at Show my Face dot com .

Fun. Describing your life in six words is many things for me. At it's center it's enjoyable. If it wasn't fun, I probably would not do it.

Challenging. Trying to get a snapshot my life in six words can be somewhat of a challenging task. It's a good challenge, especially for the writer in me.

Versatile. I have been able to use those six words for so many purposes. Obituaries, book reviews, give-a-way plugs.

Relaxed. The host allows you to explain your six words and never blares a horn at you if you happen to miscount.

Good Company. I especially enjoy reading other peoples six words and the feeling of community established there.

Six Word Saturday is the kind of meme I would have wanted to create. It is simple yet provocative. I enjoy participating and hope to for a long time.

Next Time: Blog Insider